Accredited official statistics

Emissions of air pollutants in the UK – Compliance with Code of Practice for Statistics

Updated 19 February 2024

Compliance with Code of Practice for Statistics

1. Accredited official statistics status and recent changes to this publication

Accredited official statistics status means that our statistics meet the highest standards of trustworthiness, quality and public value, and it is our responsibility to maintain compliance with these standards.

Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007, and they have been referred to by this name for previous publications. An explanation can be found on the Office for Statistics Regulation website. Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in July 2019. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards (see contact details below). Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing [email protected] or via the OSR website.

Since the latest review by the Office for Statistics Regulation, we have continued to comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics, and have made the improvements recommended in the July 2019 review, and have improved the accessibility of the publications. This included revising the colour contrast of figures to help account for colour-blindness, removing merged cells in tables, providing appropriate alternative text for screen readers and ordering the contents of lengthy PDF documents with tags, amongst others.

Defra keep all accredited official statistics under review and seek to make changes periodically to meet the needs of users. We welcome feedback and any thoughts to improve the publication further. Please feel free to provide feedback to help us make the publication more valuable to you. You can send your feedback to [email protected] or complete this short online survey.

Some example questions are given below to help you structure your feedback but all feedback is welcome:

• How relevant is the current content of the publication to your needs as a user? What purpose do you require the data for?

• What data related to emissions of air pollutants would you find most useful for the Government to provide in a statistical publication?

• Is there any content that you did not find useful?

• Do you have any further suggestions for further development of this release; including what it should cover and opportunities for further innovation in analysis and presentation?

2. Compliance with Defra Group Statistics Quality Statement

Defra group (that is: core Defra, Forestry Commission, executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies) published a set of principles that producers of statistics should adhere to, with the aim of ensuring quality is a central consideration when producing official or accredited official statistics.

There is significant overlap between the Quality Statement and the Code of Practice for Statistics. These statistics aim to comply with both sets of requirements.

User engagement has been an ongoing challenge for statistics products across Defra. Defra group has produced a User Engagement Policy Statement which outlines some of the methods recently implemented by the air quality and emissions statistics team to improve engagement with users. The team invites feedback on the publication via email and raises awareness of the release through the @DefraStats Twitter/X account. The emissions of air pollutants GOV.UK homepage will be used to make any announcements of future changes to the content or structure of the releases. Future methodological changes to compilation of emissions estimates are explained in the report on methods and quality processes for UK air pollutant emissions statistics.

The methods and processes for compiling these emissions statistics are documented in the report mentioned above which is produced alongside this statistical release. A more in-depth analysis is provided annually in March in the Informative Inventory Report (IIR) available on the NAEI website. Internal peer review is conducted on the statistical release prior to publication and follows internally documented peer review processes: the Lead Statistician (Ellie Martell) has responsibility for ensuring these processes are followed and any mistakes are addressed in line with Defra’s revisions and corrections policy.

There are many data suppliers of activity data and emissions, and the inventory compilation process is managed by Ricardo Energy and Environment. The treatment of confidential information section within the report on methods and quality processes for UK air pollutant emissions statistics gives detail on the handling of confidential or sensitive data by contractors, and substantial information is provided on quality assurance of the data. Within Defra we do not hold confidential data on emissions or activity data. However, we still ensure that the statistics are not shared outside of the pre-release access list to build and maintain trust that the statistics are prepared impartially.