Guide to Standard 1

Standard 1 from the Standards for Official Statistics in the Code of Practice for Statistics speaks to the behaviours demonstrated by those producing and using official statistics and what is required to enable them to behave in a trustworthy way.

At the heart of the standard are the Civil Service values, applied to working with official statistics: integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality. The standard requires ethical practice and care, to maintain public confidence in statistical independence.

Impartial and objective use of statistics is allied to the Standards for Intelligent Transparency, which emphasise the importance of avoiding the selective use of data. This practice is therefore relevant to senior leaders and others in the organisation using official statistics.

And there are responsibilities for the organisation too, in ensuring staff are suitably skilled, trained and resourced, to meet the needs of the production of official statistics.

The Standard

1. Producers must behave with integrity, working and communicating in ethical, honest, objective and professional ways

so that the public can have confidence in the behaviours of those involved in handling and using data and statistics

• Handle data and statistics with honesty and integrity
• Act professionally, work collaboratively and behave responsibly
• Be ethical in how you collect, access, use and share data
• Do nothing to undermine confidence in the independence of published statistics
• Present statistics and explanations impartially and objectively, ensuring statistical communication is balanced by presenting the totality of evidence rather than promoting a particular perspective (see the Standards for Intelligent Transparency)
• Recruit suitably skilled staff and apply an appropriate competency framework. Have clear roles and responsibilities for these staff
• Provide resources and time to enable staff to develop skills, knowledge and competencies, including training on safe data and quality management

Questions to consider

1. What do you do to ensure everyone involved in producing official statistics works to these professional standards?
2. What do you do to reassure users that the professional standards are being met?
3. How do you make sure that everyone in your organisation involved in the release or use of official statistics behaves appropriately?
4. How do you make sure that everyone involved in producing official statistics understands their role and responsibilities?
5. Is everyone able to access the training necessary to develop their statistical skills and knowledge?

Related guidance

Code of Practice for Statistics:

• Understanding the Code and how it supports the public good
• Guiding Principles from the Code
• Standards for Official Statistics
• Standards for Intelligent Transparency

Civil Service:

• Civil Service Code

UN Fundamental Principles:

• Handbook on Management and Organization of National Statistical Systems

Analysis Function:

• Career framework
• Role profiles and career pathways
• GSS competency framework

UK Research and Innovation:

• Research integrity – good research resource hub and UK Concordat to Support Research Integrity

UKSA Centre for Applied Data Ethics:

• ethics guidance and support

Case study:

Office for Rail and Regulation: Independent production and the managed handling of statistics and data