Scottish economy statistics: quality assurance

Quality Assurance is a fundamental activity of Statisticians in the Office of the Chief Economic Adviser (OCEA). The production of high quality statistics depends on having sound quality assurance procedures in place at all stages of the production process, from data capture or receipt, to the preparation of statistics for users.

Clear statements about the requirement on those producing official statistics are available on the UK Statistics Authority website:

Code of Practice for Official Statistics

National Statistician's Guidance on Quality

Furthermore, more detailed guidance is available on the IMF web pages. See 3.5 - Data Quality Assurance Framework - The ESS Handbook for Quality Reports.

The ESS Handbook for Quality Reports provides much more detailed guidelines and examples of quality reporting practices. A key objective is to promote harmonised quality reporting across statistical processes and across Member States and hence to facilitate cross-comparisons of processes and outputs.

Statisticians in OCEA attempt to work to the high professional standards set out in these documents, with particular emphasis on the six dimensions of the ESS Quality Framework: relevance, accuracy, timeliness and punctuality, accessibility and clarity, comparability, and coherence.