Standard content types

Statistics

Statistics are made up of an announcement and a publication.

Use a statistics announcement in the statistics release calendar to announce when official statistics or accredited official statistics will be released. You must do this to comply with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

You should also use statistics announcements for:

• explaining any changes to confirmed release dates
• announcing changes to the way statistics are collected and classified

Do not use them for:

• data that you publish monthly or more often without analysis, such as raw data - use a statistical data set instead
• announcing supporting documents (such as quality reports or methodology)

You must create a statistics publication joined to your statistics announcement. You should publish or schedule it for the release date.

The publication should contain the statistics described in the announcement or link to them if they’re published on an external website.

How far in advance to publish statistics announcements

Publish a statistics announcement 12 months before the release date. If you do not know about the statistics 12 months in advance, announce them as soon as possible.

Give a 1 or 2 month period when the statistics will be released. You must give an exact date at least 4 weeks before your statistics are due to be released, or 6 months if it’s market sensitive.

Create a statistics announcement

Do not create or modify statistics announcements unless you have permission from your organisation’s Head of Profession for Statistics.

To create or update this content type, you’ll need a Signon account with access to Whitehall Publisher.

All content should follow the GOV.UK style guide. Read the tone of voice guidelines to find out how to write your title and summary.

The title and summary are displayed in the release calendar and search engine results. They help users understand if your statistics content is what they need.

To create a statistics announcement:

1. Go to Whitehall Publisher.
2. Select the ‘Statistics announcements’ tab.
3. Select the ‘Create announcement’ link.
4. Choose a statistics type. Only select the ‘Accredited Official Statistics’ option if your statistics have been awarded the accredited official statistics badge by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR).
5. Complete the ‘Title’ and ‘Summary’ fields.
6. Add any relevant organisations.
7. Select ‘Exact date (confirmed)’ if you’re sure of the release date or select a provisional date.
8. Get someone to review your work to check it’s correct before you publish it.
9. Select ‘Publish announcement’ - it will publish on GOV.UK immediately.
10. Add topic tagging, select the ‘Add tag’ under the ‘Topic taxonomy tags’ heading.

Create a statistics publication for your announcement

Once a statistics announcement is published, you’ll see two options under the heading ‘Connected document’:

• ‘Create new document’
• ‘Add existing document’

Only choose ‘Add an existing document’ if you’ve already created a statistics publication in draft before publishing the statistics announcement.

Create a new document

1. Click ‘Create new document’. This will automatically create a statistics publication page for your statistics document. The publication type, title, summary and scheduled publishing date and time will be filled in automatically for you.
2. Add a description of the publication to the body. Describe the purpose of the statistics and do not summarise what the publication says. Say whether the method of classification has changed since the last publication.
3. Select the relevant options under ‘Excluded nations (required)’.
4. Select ‘Limit access’ if your draft is sensitive. This means only users from tagged organisations can see it before it’s published and it will not be copied across to Integration.
5. Select ‘Save’ so you can attach the file containing the statistics under the ‘Attachments’ tab.
6. Go back to the ‘Documents’ tab and select ‘Save and go to document summary’.
7. Add topic tagging by selecting the ‘Add tag’ under the ‘Topic taxonomy tags’ heading.

Add an existing document

1. If the draft of the statistics publication is already in Whitehall Publisher, select ‘Add existing document’.
2. When a search box appears, type in the title of the publication and select it from the list of results. This will link the announcement and publication pages together.

Add or remove tags to organisations, people and events from your publication

You can tag your content under the body field. You do this by adding or removing associations.

These associations include:

• ministers – use this if a government minister has had direct involvement with the content, like if they wrote a foreword
• topical events – use this if you want the content to appear on a topical event page
• world locations – use this if you work for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and you want the content to appear on a world location news page
• lead and supporting organisations – your own organisation will be set as a lead organisation as default, but you can change that or add any other organisations if they’re responsible for the content
• statistical data sets – use this if the publication is associated with a statistical data set

Review and publish a statistics publication

Find out how to send the draft for review.

If you need to publish it urgently without a review, find out when you can publish your own draft.

When the statistics publication is published, the announcement will disappear from the release calendar.

Edit a statistics publication

1. Select the ‘Documents’ tab in Whitehall Publisher. This will bring up a list of publications. Use the filters to find yours.
2. Select ‘View’ next to the publication.
3. Select the ‘Edit’ button.
4. Make your changes.
5. Do not change anything under the ‘Political’ heading. This is related to history mode and it will only be important if your organisation is asked to take part in a history mode audit.
6. Decide whether you need to write change notes. Go to the bottom of the page and select the relevant option under ‘Do users have to know the content has changed?’, and add your change notes if needed (you can edit them again before you publish the draft).
7. Select the ‘Save’ button at the bottom of the page.
8. Select ‘Submit for 2nd eyes’. This will allow another editor to review your document and then they can publish or schedule it.

Edit a statistics announcement title, summary, organisation or topic

1. Select the ‘Statistics announcements’ tab in Whitehall Publisher. This will bring up a list of existing announcements.
2. Select ‘View’ next to the announcement you want to edit.
3. Select the ‘Update announcement’ button.
4. Make your changes.
5. Have someone else check your text for errors.
6. Select ‘Save and publish changes’.

Change the release date of a statistics announcement

1. Select the ‘Statistics announcements’ tab in Whitehall Publisher. This will bring up a list of existing announcements.
2. Select ‘View’ next to the announcement you want to edit.
3. Select ‘Change dates’ under the ‘Release and delivery date’ heading.
4. Change the date.
5. If you’re changing a confirmed date, add a change note to explain the change of date - this will appear on the page for the public to read.
6. Select ‘Update date’.

Cancel or unpublish a statistics announcement

Cancel a statistics announcement if the statistics will no longer be published.

If you cancel an announcement, it will remain in the calendar until a month after the planned publication date. You will have to explain why the statistics have been cancelled.

You should unpublish an announcement instead if it:

• was published in error
• is a duplicate

Cancel a statistics announcement

If the statistics will not be published for any other reason, cancel the announcement. To cancel an announcement:

1. Select the ‘Statistics announcements’ tab in Whitehall Publisher. This will bring up a list of existing announcements.
2. Select ‘View’ next to the announcement you want to cancel.
3. Select on the ‘Cancel statistics release’ button.
4. A box will appear asking you to give the ‘Reason for cancellation’. This is a mandatory field which will appear on the website. You can edit the reason for cancellation after you’ve published it.
5. Select the ‘Publish cancellation’ button.

Unpublish a statistics announcement

Only managing editors can unpublish a statistics announcement if it was published in error.

If your managing editor is not available, contact GDS using the GOV.UK Support form.

To unpublish a duplicate announcement or one published by mistake:

1. Select the ‘Statistics announcements’ tab in Whitehall Publisher. This will bring up a list of existing announcements.
2. Select ‘View’ next to the announcement you want to unpublish.
3. Select the ‘Unpublish announcement’ button.
4. Add the URL you want the announcement to redirect to and click the ‘Unpublish’ button.

Find out how to withdraw or unpublish a statistics publication.