Commits us to publishing and maintaining a statement describing how we apply the standards set out in the Protocol.
Documents
Details
Our outputs
We publish a wide range of statistics for Wales in the following formats:
- first releases publish new data
- bulletins publish new, often more in-depth, analyses of data already in the public domain including methodological bulletins
- headline statistics provide short standalone analysis or signpost to analysis produced by another department
- detailed data tables are made available via the StatsWales service
- interactive websites are used to provide more user friendly and interactive access to key statistical sources
National Statistics
The majority of our releases and bulletins are National Statistics. This means they have been assessed by the UK Statistics Authority as being in full compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. However the principles underlying the protocol of open release practices apply to all official statistics produced by the Welsh Government.
Pricing and form of outputs
All regular statistical outputs will be released on the internet, free of charge.
Pre-announcement
In general there are established timetables for the preparation of regular quarterly and monthly first releases and exact publication dates are given six months in advance. For other outputs, the month of publication is given six months ahead and the exact date at least four weeks ahead.
Months and dates are pre-announced on the Upcoming calendar.
Timing of releases
In general, statistical outputs are published on the website at 9.30 am on a normal working day. Publication is also announced by email to known users of the statistics and via social media.
Format of releases
The Chief Statistician at the Welsh Government is responsible for the content, timing and format of all statistical outputs. Any statement about policy made by the Welsh Ministers is issued separately.
Pre-release access to statistics
Legislation states that Welsh Ministers may have up to five working days (up to 24 hours in the case of market sensitive statistics) early access to outputs, along with their officials. The sole purpose is for ministers to be able to respond completely when questions arise at the time of publication. We maintain a record, for public scrutiny, of ministers and their officials who have such access to each output.
Early access to statistics can also be given to a limited number of officials in the course of quality assurance of the data. An accurate audit trail is maintained and those officials receiving unreleased material are advised of their responsibilities in respect of confidentiality.
Security markings
Prior to release, all outputs containing statistics not yet in the public domain are marked ‘OFFICIAL – SENSITIVE’. A standard statement accompanies all instances of pre-release access to statistics by ministers and their officials stressing that they must not be forwarded to anyone else or their contents reported.’
Welsh language
Statistical outputs are produced bilingually if sufficient user need has been identified. This is in accordance with our requirements under the Welsh Language Standards and of the Code of Practice for Statistics on meeting user needs.