About Official Statistics

Official statistics are defined in section 6 of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 as statistics produced by the UK Statistics Authority, by government departments including executive agencies, by any other person acting on behalf of the Crown and any other person or body identified by ministers in an Official Statistics Order.

All producers of official statistics are expected to comply with the best practice standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. Those official statistics that have been formally assessed by the UK Statistics Authority to be compliant with the Code of Practice carry the label 'National Statistics'.

For further information please follow the links below:

• UK National Statistics Hub
• UK Statistics Authority
• UKSA Code of Practice for Official Statistics (359kb PDF)
• Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007
• Pre Release to Statistics Order 2008