Background

Following a legislative amendment, Qualifications Scotland is a named producer of official statistics, as the Scottish Qualifications Authority was before it.

We produce official statistics in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics 3.0 (‘the Code’). Version 3.0 of the Code was released in October 2025.

Standard 8 of the Code states “Producers must put users at the centre of decision making about the statistics, listening and responding to feedback, and be transparent about statistical planning”.

We made improvements to our publications after our last user survey in 2024. These changes included the development of our first Shiny application to accompany the Progression publication. This met user requests to explore visualisations of easily selected data.

A review of regular requests to our external mailbox and freedom of information (FOI) requests also identified the need for a new publication covering Candidate Achievement. This was first published in September 2025 based on provisional attainment data, including backdated versions for 2019 to 2024. Revised versions, based on final attainment data for 2019 to 2024 were added in November 2025, with the 2025 version being added in December 2025.

We also added separate workbooks by sex to our Appeals publication in 2025, so that statistics referred to in the summary could be sourced.

We made improvements to our website based on feedback, with provisional attainment data being kept on our webpages alongside final data. In 2025, we made a further change so that users could also download data tables directly from our online reports.

During the transition to Qualifications Scotland, we shared a user consultation using ScotStat mailing lists between January and mid-February 2026. The survey was sent out to over 900 email addresses registered as having an interest in education and/or children related statistics.

This document contains a summary of the responses to the 2026 user consultation.

Survey responses

22 responses about Qualifications Scotland Official Statistics were received, where at least one question was answered. Two responses related to statistics produced by other organisations were removed.

Meeting user needs

The first question asked, “Are our publications meeting your needs?”.

Of the 22 responses, 11 replied Yes and 11 replied No.

Of those that provided further information, comments included:

  • a request for attainment statistics by stage (e.g. S5)
  • requests for further equalities breakdowns, such as for estimates and appeals
  • count information to be available alongside percentage figures so that groups can be aggregated (e.g. a Black minority ethnic total)
  • requests for information to be published on vocational technical qualifications
  • requests for centre level mark data
  • more detailed breakdowns of equalities information such as by individual ethnicities, population data (such as percentage of a population requesting assessment arrangements), and count information to be available alongside percentage figures so that groups can be aggregated (e.g. a Black minority ethnic total). It was noted that it would be useful to have percentage of arrangements by characteristics such as ASN.

Some comments related to privileged or detailed data which would not be published as official statistics.

Positive comments included that our attainment statistics, assessment arrangements, equalities monitoring report, appeals and estimates publications were meeting their needs. There was also appreciation of the ability to download data tables directly from our reports.

Usefulness

The second question asked, “Are our statistics useful to you?”.

Of the 21 responses, 19 replied Yes and 2 replied No.

Of those that provided further information, comments included:

  • requests for access to detailed equalities breakdowns such as intersections of certain groups
  • requests for information on HNVQ statistics

Some comments related to privileged or detailed data which would not be published as official statistics.

There were several positive comments including that the Attainment Statistics, Equalities Monitoring Report and Candidate Achievement outputs are useful. There was also appreciation of the ability to download data tables directly from our reports.

Accessibility

The third question asked, “Are our statistics accessible to you?”.

Of the 21 responses, 18 replied Yes and 3 replied No.

Of those that provided further information, comments included:

  • requests for further information to be made publicly available on HNVQ qualifications
  • historic vocational technical qualifications data being difficult to find on our webpages

Some comments related to privileged or detailed data which would not be published as official statistics.

Clarity

The fourth question asked, “Are our statistical publications clear?”.

Of the 20 responses, 18 replied Yes and 2 replied No.

Of those that provided further information, comments included:

  • requests for clarity in our publications as to what A to C and A attainment rates mean
  • for data to be made available separately for individual HNVQ qualifications rather than presenting HNVQ qualification data together when they may be quite different qualification types and for different learner groups.

Accuracy

The fifth question asked, “Do our statistics provide the level of detail required to meet your needs?”.

Of the 21 responses, 15 replied Yes and 6 replied No.

Of those that provided further information, comments included:

  • no reports on vocational technical qualifications exist
  • centre level mark data
  • count information to be available alongside percentage figures so that groups can be aggregated (e.g. a Black minority ethnic total)
  • requests for intersectional statistics (e.g. disabled Females and Males, ethnicity breakdowns by sex) and additional disaggregations of equalities data

The final comment acknowledged that figures may be small for certain outputs and mentioned the possibility of aggregation or multi-year estimates. One further comment asked for deeper dives into areas of interest but did not specify particular areas.

Timeliness

The last question asked, “Are our statistics produced on a timely enough basis to meet your needs?”.

Of the 19 responses, 17 replied Yes and 2 replied No.

Of those that provided further information, comments included:

  • centre level mark data to be made available before starting the next academic year
  • lack of vocational technical outputs and previous outputs in the Archive section of our website having had a long lag
  • the annual publication of attainment statistics and the equalities monitoring being timely enough

Additional comments

Of those that provided further information, comments included:

  • that our statistics are meeting their current needs
  • requests to not discontinue any of our statistical reports and information
  • further requests for HNVQ statistics
  • an ask for the coverage of the attainment statistics publication to be clearly presented as relating to National Qualifications only
  • further statistics to be made available on equalities characteristics
  • an ask for Attainment Statistics to include a breakdown of subject attainment by stage

Response to the user consultation

The Data and Analytics team welcomes the feedback received from the user survey. The general satisfaction from users and noting of improvements to date are welcomed.

Comments received on meeting user needs, usefulness, accessibility, clarity, accuracy, and timeliness are now being considered alongside other sources detailed in our public involvement and engagement strategy.

These will decide our annual statistical work program which will be published on the 12th May 2026.

Questions or comments?

We want this information to be as helpful as possible. Please email us at data.analytics@qualifications.gov.scot with questions or general comments.

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code. You can also email us with your comments on how we’re meeting these standards, or you can contact OSR by email at regulation@statistics.gov.uk, or through the OSR website.