Planning

Qualifications Scotland maintains a publication schedule that details the month in which it plans to release a specific a set of statistics. Where possible, we provide a specific release date and time at least four weeks ahead of publication.

We discuss any changes to published release dates or times within this four-week window with the head of profession for statistics (Qualifications Scotland’s head of data and analytics) and Scotland’s chief statistician and announce as soon as possible, explaining the reasons for any changes.

Publication timing

As far as possible, and under the guidance of the head of profession, we

• publish our statistics as soon as possible after release

• release our statistics at 9.30am on a weekday, as detailed in our publication schedule

We aim to reduce any delay, particularly when a lot of information is being released at the same time.

In our revisions and corrections policy, we outline what we do if we need to revise or correct any of our published statistics.

Pre-release access

This describes the privileged access, for specific purposes, to some official statistics releases before they are made public. Such access must be justified, controlled, publicised and compliant with statutory rules as set out in the Pre-release Access to Official Statistics (Scotland) Order 2008.

Standard 3, practice 4 of the Code states: ‘Act in line with relevant pre-release access rules and principles set out in legislation when circulating official statistics in their final form’.

Pre-release access to Qualification Scotland’s official statistics is restricted to:

• a maximum of five working days before publication

• the minimum number of eligible people necessary

The head of profession is responsible for determining who can have pre-release access.

Pre-release access exists so that:

• Scottish ministers, and office-holders or officials advising them, have time to understand the statistics correctly before commenting on them

• office-holders or officials advising the Scottish Ministers can assure the quality of any statistical public statement they issue

• any public body, whose functions are described by or relevant to the statistics (or a public representative of that body), has time to understand the statistics correctly before commenting on them.

Qualifications Scotland publishes the job titles and organisations of everyone who has been granted pre-release access alongside the statistics.

Conditions of pre-release access

People given pre-release access must confirm by email that they understand and will abide by pre-release access rules, including that:

• they must keep the statistics secure and confidential until their official publication date and time

We mark all the publications we share during pre-release with ‘pre-release’ and the date of publication.

If there are any breaches to the pre-release access rules, the head of profession will follow the guidance on reporting concerns outlined in the Code.

Confidentiality

Before we publish Qualifications Scotland’s official statistics, only people directly involved in producing, preparing and carrying out quality assurance have access to this information.

We keep a list of all these people, and those who have pre-release access. They must agree to the access rules and follow the head of profession’s directions to:

• not make the statistics public before we release them

• not share them without permission