Producing official statistics

Release practice policy

Purpose

This policy sets out the Scottish Government's approach to planning, pre-announcing and releasing official statistics in compliance with Practice 3.11 of the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Pre-announcement of Statistical Releases

The Scottish Government publishes a release calendar for forthcoming official statistics publications.

We aim to provide a provisional publication date for official statistics at least twelve months before publication. A finalised publication date and time is confirmed at least four weeks before release, where possible. Updates to the forthcoming publications calendar are made regularly.

If publication dates need to change, we provide as much notice as possible and update the forthcoming publications calendar with information about the reason for the change of dates. Users who have registered for updates are notified of changes to publication dates by email.

In exceptional circumstances, we may need to cancel or postpone a statistical release. In such cases:

• we provide as much notice as possible via the publications calendar and direct communication with registered users
• we explain the reasons for the change
• we indicate when the statistics are expected to be published

Revisions and corrections are published in line with our revisions and corrections policy.

Pre-release Access

Pre-release access is the practice of providing advance access to official statistics to named individuals prior to publication. The arrangements for pre-release access in Scotland are set out in the Pre-release Access to Official Statistics (Scotland) Order 2008, which was amended by the Pre-release Access to Official Statistics (Scotland) Act 2021.

The key features of this legislation are that:

• pre-release access is granted to named individuals only where necessary for a reason specified in legislation, such as to enable Scottish Ministers and their advisers to comment publicly on statistics based on a correct understanding
• for most statistics, pre-release access may be granted up to five working days before publication
• for economic statistics, pre-release access is limited to one day before publication. For GDP and Scottish retail sales statistics, there is no pre-release access
• statistics producers are required to maintain a list of all individuals granted pre-release access

Standard Release Times

Official statistics are released at 09:30 am on weekdays, unless an alternative release time has been agreed for specific publications in line with the Office for Statistics Regulation alternative release times policy.

User Communication

The release calendar for official statistics is published on the Scottish Government website. We use the ScotStat mailing list to communicate with users about release schedules and planned changes.

Each statistical publication also includes contact details for enquiries.

Responsibilities

The Office of the Chief Statistician provide oversight of release practices. Individual statistical teams are responsible for adhering to this policy for their publications, with support from their senior statisticians.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards via the Office of the Chief Statistician.

Alternatively, you can email the Office for Statistics Regulation by email or contact them via their website.