Change of https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/standards-for-official-statistics-published-by-the-department-for-education

Change description : 2026-07-30 16:00:00: Added ‘DfE statistical confidentiality policy and data management approach’, which replaces ‘Statistical policy statement on confidentiality’, ‘Statement of administrative sources’ and ‘statement of administrative sources: annex’. Also added ‘DfE public involvement and engagement strategy’, which replaces the ‘Statistical policy statement on user engagement’. Added ‘DfE statistical revisions and corrections’, which replaces ‘Statistical policy statement on revisions’. Also added ‘DfE release practice policy for official statistics’ and ‘DfE statement of compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics’. Removed ‘School census: data quality and processing’. Also removed ‘Performance tables attainment data: statement of administrative sources’ and ‘Performance tables: user survey and feedback’. [Guidance and regulation]

Showing diff : 2026-06-30 15:00:50.028882815 +00:00..2026-07-30 15:02:36.999502590 +00:00

Guidance

DfE official statistics: standards and policies

OutlinesDocuments describing the standards DfEwe followsfollow to produce official statistics.

From:
Department for Education
Published:Published
23 April 2013
Last updated:updated
30 JulyJune 2026 — See all updates

Applies to England

Documents

DfE statistical work programme

HTML

Quality management of official statistics

HTML

DfEPre-release statisticalaccess confidentialityto policyofficial andstatistics dataorder management approach2008

HTMLPDF, 239 KB, 12 pages

Hive IT - DfE publicdata involvmentdissemination discovery

PDF, 3.97 MB, 29 pages

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Statement of administrative sources

Ref: DFE-00156-2017

HTMLPDF, 453 KB, 7 pages

DfEStatement statisticalof revisionsadministrative sources: annex

MS Excel Spreadsheet, 427 KB

This file may not be suitable for users of assistive technology.

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Statistical policy statement on revisions

Ref: DFE-00035-2019

HTMLPDF, 877 KB, 4 pages

DfEPolicy releasestatement practiceon policy for official statisticsconfidentiality

Ref: DFE-00025-2019

HTMLPDF, 190 KB, 5 pages

DfEStatistical statementquality ofprinciples complianceand withprocedures

PDF, the128 CodeKB, of7 Practicepages

Statistical forpolicy Statisticsstatement on user engagement

HTMLPDF, 158 KB, 8 pages

Pre-releasePerformance Accesstables toattainment Officialdata: Statisticsstatement Orderof 2008administrative sources

HTMLhttp://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/aboutadmindata.html

StatisticalPerformance qualitytables: principlesuser survey and proceduresfeedback

HTMLhttp://www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/userfeedback.html

HiveSchool ITcensus: - DfE data disseminationquality discoveryand processing

Ref: DFE-00260-2017

PDF, 4.11147 MBKB, 297 pages

Details

Topics covered include:

  • requiredadministrative policiessources (data from schools, local authorities, and statementsother relatingorganisations, including awarding bodies)
  • revisions to officialstatistical statisticspublications production(due to methodology or data changes, or errors)

  • qualityconfidentiality principles(through personnel, data and procedures,statistical including:

    • relevancedisclosure control)
    • accuracy
    • quality principles and procedures (including relevance, accuracy, timeliness and punctuality
    • punctuality, accessibility and clarityclarity, comparability, and coherence)
    • comparability
    • coherence
  • compliance with the Pre-releasepre-release Accessaccess to the Official Statistics Order 2008 (the operational arrangements for giving ministers and officials pre-release access to DepartmentDfE for Education official statistics before publication)
  • user engagement (how we identify and communicate with our users to provide the statistics they need)
  • the steps we take to collect and validate school census data

Updates to this page

Published 23 April 2013
Last updated 30 JulyJune 2026 — Show all updates

  1. Added ‘DfE statistical confidentiality policy and data management approach’, which replaces ‘Statistical policy statement on confidentiality’, ‘Statement of administrative sources’ and ‘statement of administrative sources: annex’. Also added ‘DfE public involvement and engagement strategy’, which replaces the ‘Statistical policy statement on user engagement’. Added ‘DfE statistical revisions and corrections’, which replaces ‘Statistical policy statement on revisions’. Also added ‘DfE release practice policy for official statistics’ and ‘DfE statement of compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics’. Removed 'School census: data quality and processing'. Also removed ‘Performance tables attainment data: statement of administrative sources’ and ‘Performance tables: user survey and feedback’.

  2. Added 'DfE statistical work programme' and 'Quality management of official statistics', which replaces 'Quality assurance of education statistics'.

  3. Updated 'Statistical policy statement on revisions'.

  4. Updated 'Policy statement on confidentiality'.

  5. Added 'Pre-release access to official statistics order 2008'.

  6. Added 'Hive IT - DfE data dissemination discovery' report.

  7. Added 'Developing DfE Statistics in 2018'.

  8. Added document 'School census: data quality and processing'.

  9. Updated policy documents on 'Statement of administrative sources' and its annex and 'Statistical policy statement on revisions'. Added 'Quality assurance of education statistics'.

  10. Added links to performance tables attainment data and a user survey.

  11. Added 'Statement of administrative sources' and 'Statement of administrative sources: annex'.

  12. Replaced 'Pre-release access to official statistics order 2008' with updated document.

  13. 'Statistical policy statement on user engagement' document added to page.

  14. First published.

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Update history

2026-07-30 16:00
Added ‘DfE statistical confidentiality policy and data management approach’, which replaces ‘Statistical policy statement on confidentiality’, ‘Statement of administrative sources’ and ‘statement of administrative sources: annex’. Also added ‘DfE public involvement and engagement strategy’, which replaces the ‘Statistical policy statement on user engagement’. Added ‘DfE statistical revisions and corrections’, which replaces ‘Statistical policy statement on revisions’. Also added ‘DfE release practice policy for official statistics’ and ‘DfE statement of compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics’. Removed ‘School census: data quality and processing’. Also removed ‘Performance tables attainment data: statement of administrative sources’ and ‘Performance tables: user survey and feedback’.

2026-06-30 16:00
Added ‘DfE statistical work programme’ and ‘Quality management of official statistics’, which replaces ‘Quality assurance of education statistics’.