National Statistics is a quality marker applied to certain of the UK's official statistics. It is important that official statistics are trusted and statistics labelled as "National Statistics" must meet certain criteria. They should for example, be fit for purpose, methodologically sound, politically independent and transparently produced. All National Statistics are produced in accordance with the "Framework for National Statistics " and they must comply with the principles embodied in the "Code of Practice ". The majority of statistics released by Information Services Divsion (ISD) are published under National Statistics.

Forthcoming Publications
One of the main objectives of National Statistics is to improve the quality, timeliness and relevance of its service to customers. A very important element to improving the timeliness of and confidence in official statistics is the pre-announcement of release dates for statistics. All of ISD's publications have a planned release date and forthcoming publications are pre-announced within the ISD website.

Not all outputs and publications that ISD contribute to fall under the National Statistics banner. However, where possible and appropriate, ISD will endeavour to treat these publications in the same manner as national statistics publications and provide pre-announcement dates.

Information on the title, description and date of publication plus contact details can be found within the forthcoming new release page.

National Statistics arrangements require the production of a statistics plan. Details of the ISDScotland Statistical Plan for 2004-05 aims to help meet that requirement. The Chief Statistician for Scotland has also produced a Statistics Plan Overview and Annual Report 2004/05 which should provide the basis for discussion on developments in statistics for the coming year, and progress against the previous years plan.

The Strategic Review of Health and Care Statistics in Scotland, published in December 2005, contains a series of recommendations which reflect a wide range of requirements including data needs, data collection, data presentation and data access. ISD are currently developing an implentation plan in order to take these recommendations forward. Click here for a copy of the report.

For further information please contact:
Brian Reid

email: Brian.Reid@isd.csa.scot.nhs.uk
tel 0131 275 6707