Official Statistics

Valuation Office Agency: statement of compliance with the pre-release access to official statistics order 2008

Published 27 March 2017

1. Exclusion

Different arrangements apply to ministers’ and officials’ access to the VOA’s own management or administrative data where those data subsequently form the basis for published official statistics.

2. Authority

These arrangements have been drawn up by the VOA’s Lead Statistician. They are responsible for ensuring the day-to-day implementation of these arrangements.

3. General principle

The VOA operates under the general principle that pre–release access to official statistics must be:

1) limited to the minimum number of persons deemed necessary to allow the CEO, Ministers and their key officials to either:

• respond to questions or to make statements about these statistics at, or shortly after, the time of publication
• take action just before, at the time of, or shortly after publication of those statistics

2) allowed in circumstances where the public benefit likely to result from such access outweighs the detriment to public trust in official statistics likely to result from doing so.

4. Grant of advance access

The arrangements set out in this statement are confined to those persons who meet the eligibility criteria set out in Annex A1. Recipients can, in addition, share their access with their immediate administrative support staff even though those staff may not directly engage with the statistics in question. Their advance access is limited to statistics which meet the eligibility criteria set out in Annex A2, and which are in their final form prior to being published for the first time.

5. Documentation and publication

In the interests of openness and transparency, the VOA maintains a public record on its website listing the titles of all the statistical releases to which these arrangements apply. As well as this, the job titles of all those persons to whom the pre–release access has been granted, and the organisations to which they belong. The justification for giving advance access to each listed recipient is available on request.

6. Period of access

In line with the UK legislation, pre–release access to the VOA’s official statistics is restricted to a maximum of 24 hours before their public release on the following day at 09:30am.

In exceptional circumstances only, and in accordance with Principle 5 of the Pre–release Access to Official Statistics Order 2008, the VOA’s Lead Statistician, in consultation with others, may grant pre–release access in excess of 24 hours. This is if, in their opinion, the public benefits outweigh the detriment to public trust which is likely to result from such extended access. When this happens, the Lead Statistician will publish their reasons for granting extended access, and will also inform the UK Statistics Authority’s Chief Executive (the National Statistician).

7. Conditions of access

Those persons who are given pre-release access to the VOA’s official statistics must keep the statistics secure and under embargo until their release, and they must abide by certain conditions of access. They must avoid:

• disclosing the statistics or any part of a publication containing those statistics to any persons not listed as a pre–release recipient
• providing any indication of the size or the direction of any trend revealed by the statistics
• using such access for personal gain, or taking any action for political advantage
• exploiting such access to change or compromise the content, presentation, or timing of publication of official statistics

8. Special circumstances

Aside from the circumstances described above, the VOA’s Lead Statistician may also allow access to statistics ahead of their release to a limited number of persons in special circumstances, sometimes more than 24 hours before public release. In each case, such access will be documented in the relevant release. For example:

• access may be given to the compilers of complementary reports due to be published at the same time as, or shortly after, the statistics so that they can incorporate the latest available figures. Such access may be for longer than 24 hours before public release
• international organisations may gain access to compile supra-national statistics
• journalists may be given access to complex or compendia releases to give them time to absorb and understand the significance of a given release. Such access, however, will never exceed 24 hours before public release

9. Breach of these conditions

In the event of a breach of the principles and rules set out in the legislation and described in this Statement, the VOA’s Lead Statistician will notify the UK Statistics Authority’s Chief Executive (the National Statistician) as well as the Authority’s Head of Assessment. Then, take action to prevent a recurrence and provide the Authority with a written explanation. The National Statistician may decide to conduct an inquiry on behalf of the Authority, the results of which will be posted on the Authority’s website.

10. Sanctions against non–compliance

The VOA’s Lead Statistician may, for a period, withdraw pre–release access from any person judged to have breached the conditions of their access.

In addition, a heavier sanction can be imposed by the UK Statistics Authority which has a statutory duty to assess the extent to which any organisation’s official statistics comply with the Pre-release Access to Official Statistics Order 2008 and with the associated obligations set out in this statement. The Authority can, for instance, challenge an organisation where it considers that pre-release access is not justified or where an organisation is failing to conform to these arrangements.

Where official statistics are branded as national statistics the UK Statistics Authority can also withdraw, or consider withdrawing, national statistics designation from the statistics in question.

In the event of any such challenge or withdrawal the VOA’s Lead Statistician will publish the VOA’s response or reaction on the VOA statistics main page on GOV.UK along with its plans for achieving conformance.

11. Notes

11.1 1. Pre–release access

The phrase ‘pre–release access’ covers privileged access to statistical releases in their final form prior to being placed in the public domain. It does not cover pre–release access available to:

• those persons engaged in the process of producing and disseminating the statistics in question (including those responsible for overseeing this process)
• those persons requested by producers to quality assure the statistics before their public release

11.2 2. Heads of Profession of Statistics/Lead Statistician

Organisations which employ a large number of statisticians, or produce a large number of official statistics will normally appoint a Head of Profession for Statistics or Lead Statistician in consultation with the National Statistician. As well as being accountable to their own Chief Executives and line managers, Heads of Profession / Lead Statisticians are responsible to the National Statistician for the professional integrity of statisticians whom they manage and for the quality of the statistics which those statisticians produce. In particular they are responsible for observing the UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice for Official Statistics as well as any professional standards set by the National Statistician.

Mark Wardell is the Lead Statistician at the Valuation Office Agency.

12. Annex A: Criteria for granting pre-release access

12.1 A1. Categories of persons within government to whom the VOA would normally grant pre-release access to its statistical releases:

• those Chief Officers or Ministers of other government departments who have policy or operational responsibility for a particular subject matter covered by a statistical release; who are accountable to Parliament and the electorate for their stewardship of that policy; and who may need to respond to questions about the statistics, or take appropriate action, at the time of release of those statistics

• those close officials who have operational responsibility for a particular activity covered by a release, and who are accountable for their stewardship of that activity to Chief Officers and Ministers, and through them to Parliament; and who are in a similar position to those Chief Officers and Ministers described above

• the Departmental or Agency officials with ultimate responsibility for formulating, developing, maintaining, monitoring or implementing that policy

• other Departmental or Agency officials who have been assigned the specific responsibility to brief Ministers or Chief Officers about the statistics in question (e.g. Special Advisers, Policy Advisers, Analysts)

• departmental press officers responsible for managing Ministers’ interface with the media with respect to the policy or statistics in question

• any immediate additional staff who support the Chief Executive (CEO), HM Treasury Ministers with Departmental responsibility for VOA, Department for Communities and Local Government Ministers

12.2 A2. Categories of statistical release to which the VOA would normally grant pre-release access:

• releases categorised as ‘market sensitive’ (i.e. releases which embody statistics which, when disclosed, would be reasonably likely to have a significant effect on the value or traded volume of any investment)

• releases which incorporate statistics which are used to monitor, measure, or benchmark the government’s performance (either generally, or against formal targets) or the outcome of public policy

• releases which have the potential to impinge substantially on the formulation, implementation, or monitoring of government policy

• releases which have the potential to inform, or impact on, decisions about the allocation of public funds

• releases which have, demonstrably and historically, had a high public profile (i.e. regularly generate column inches in the print media or regularly attract the attention of the broadcast media) and on which Ministers or Chief Officers with responsibility for the subject matter might reasonably be expected to comment at the time of release

• releases which incorporate statistics derived from other departments’ or agencies’ administrative or management systems, and for which Ministers or Chief Officers in those other departments have ownership and operational responsibility

• compendia publications (which often include data which has already been released) or complex publications which may have been made available to the media in advance of their public release, and under embargo, in order to give journalists time to absorb and understand their contents

• releases which cover matters of wide public interest