Statement of application of the Code of Practice for Statistics

1. Introduction

The Council is classified as an official statistics producer under the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 (‘the Act’), and frequently publishes a range of outputs containing official statistics. Official statistics are statistics produced by organisations named by the Act or by secondary legislation, and which are described by that organisation as official statistics.

The Code of Practice for Statistics provides producers of official statistics with the practices they must commit to when producing and releasing official statistics. It ensures that the statistics published by government serve the public good, and is built upon three pillars:

• trustworthiness – confidence in the people and organisations that produce statistics and data
• quality – data and methods that produce assured statistics, and
• value – statistics that support society’s needs for information.

2. Application of the Code to the Council’s statistics

2.1 Scope

The Council’s official statistics publications include our statistical summaries (previously referred to as statistical bulletins) and data tables. These provide an overview of current sentencing practice on the offences covered by the Council’s guideline using data from the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ) Court Proceedings Database (CPD). They are a subset of the statistics used to produce the MoJ’s accredited official statistics (formerly National Statistics) Criminal Justice System statistics quarterly publication.

For more information on the Council’s official statistics publications, see this page.

Other statistical outputs, such as our resource assessments and evaluations, while not formally official statistics, often draw on and include analysis which is underpinned by the MoJ’s CPD statistics, so must also be handled in accordance with the Code’s principles governing such data. In these cases, because the Council strives to produce high quality work that furthers the understanding of sentencing practice, it is committed to applying the Code’s pillars of trustworthiness, quality and value as far as possible and ensuring that all statistical outputs serve the public good. These publications include the Council’s resource assessments and guideline evaluations:

• resource assessments – these contain estimates of the impact of the Council’s guidelines on prison, probation and youth justice services, and are published alongside draft and definitive guidelines. The Council has a statutory duty to produce these as part of its legislative duties under the Coroners and Justice Act 2009.
• guideline evaluations – the Council produces these as part of its legislative duty to monitor the operation and effect of its sentencing guidelines. These contain analysis of the impact that guidelines may have had on sentencing outcomes and any implementation issues associated with them. They are published once a guideline has been in force for a period along with any supporting evidence from data collections the Council has undertaken (for which the datasets are published as official statistics).

2.2 Applying the Code

For those publications that are official statistics, we apply the Code of Practice.

For our other analytical publications, such as our resource assessments and evaluations, we have set out below how we apply the principals of the Code of Practice. As publications vary from one to another in their scope, structure and content, but contain a similar subset of sources of evidence and types of analysis, these are grouped together in this section and discussed as one. The analysis within the Council’s resource assessments and guideline evaluations broadly fall into two categories: statistical analysis and social research. While social research is not currently in scope of this statement, for any statistical analysis, the three pillars of the Code are followed as closely as possible, as detailed below. The relevant numbered sections from the Code are given throughout in brackets, for reference.

2.2.1 Trustworthiness

Trustworthiness is a product of the people, systems and processes within organisations that enable and support the production of statistics and analysis. It comes from the organisation that produces statistics and data being well led, well managed and open, and the people who work there being impartial and skilled in what they do.

• Honesty and integrity (T1) – Analysis is conducted by Office of the Sentencing Council (OSC) analysts, all who comply with the Civil Service Code and the Seven Principles of Public Life.  
• Independent decision making and leadership (T2) – The analysts in the OSC are members of Government Analysis professions, including the Government Social Research profession, and all analysis is overseen and quality assured by badged members of the Government Statistician Group, who aim to follow the Code of Practice in their work where possible and act independently of political influence. The Chief Statistician/Head of Profession for Statistics at the Ministry of Justice (or appropriate designated deputy) is sighted on all publications.
• Orderly release (T3) – Where appropriate and possible, statistical publications are pre-announced in advance. Access to publications before their public release is limited to those involved in the production of the statistics, preparation of the release, and a small number of individuals for quality assurance and operational/policy purposes. Publications are released at 09.30 on a weekday, with the exception of resource assessments which are released at 00:01 on a weekday, alongside the relevant guideline, because they are an accompanying document.
• Transparent processes and management (T4) – The Sentencing Council’s annual report provides details of ongoing evaluative work and resource assessments and other analytical reports that have been published. The annual business plan lists upcoming evaluations and other research reports, with approximate dates of publications. Minutes of the Council’s meetings, containing summaries of decisions on subjects including when a new project is agreed are published on the Council’s website. Guideline evaluations and ad-hoc analyses are peer reviewed by an external expert, usually a leading academic.
• Professional capability (T5) – Most of these publications are produced by badged members of the Government Statistician Group. Where analysis has been produced by or contributed to by analysts of other professions such as the Government Social Research profession, publications are overseen and quality assured by badged members of the GSG.
• Data governance (T6) – The Council follows the Data Protection Act 2018 in its work and there are data governance policies and processes in place for managing the safety and security of data, including data sharing agreements and data protection impact assessments, where applicable. Appropriate disclosure control methods are applied before releasing statistics and data.

2.2.2 Quality

Quality means that statistics meet their intended uses, are based on appropriate data and methods, and are not materially misleading. Quality requires skilled professional judgement about collecting, preparing, analysing and publishing statistics and data in ways that meet the needs of people who want to use the statistics.

• Suitable data sources (Q1) – The data sources included in the publications are chosen for being the most appropriate for their purpose, are analysed appropriately and any caveats or issues are communicated clearly to users.
  1) The first main source is the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ) Court Proceedings Database. This is also used to produce several accredited official statistics publications (formerly National Statistics publications) as the MoJ’s Criminal Justice Statistics Quarterly, so is already verified as a good quality data source and is generally regarded (across Government and by stakeholders) as the foremost source of sentencing data. Analysts work with the data owners, where applicable, to overcome issues and to understand any methodological or output changes. If any major changes meant that the statistics were no longer suitable, then the Council’s analysts would consider whether other sources are required as an alternative.
  2) For the data the Council collects itself and owns, it aims to continuously improve the quality by learning lessons from past data collections and making changes to future processes. For example, pilot studies have allowed changes to be made to the format, content and promotion of the data collection forms. We have also responded to the feedback of sentencers throughout our data collection exercises and implemented routing of questions to improve the internal consistency of responses.
  3) Finally, transcripts of Crown Court judges’ sentencing remarks are often one of the main sources used to inform any resource impact estimates within the Council’s resource assessments. These transcripts vary in quality and detail, and so are only used when sufficient information is available within them, and any relevant caveats around the quality are included as required.
• Sound methods (Q2) – Publications include explanations and reasoning for any methods used and limitations are explained clearly to users. The Council collaborates with analysts in other areas of the Ministry of Justice and other government departments (including methodological experts at the Office for National Statistics), and with academics, where applicable, to learn from others and incorporate the best knowledge available.
• Assured quality (Q3) – Statistical analysis is quality assured prior to publication by a badged member of the Government Statistician Group, including by making comparisons with other sources such as the MoJ’s Criminal Justice Statistics publication, where possible and applicable. Figures are checked to ensure internal consistency and trends over time are sense-checked. If a sudden change in trend is observed then analysts will try to determine a possible cause or flag a possible data issue, as needed.

2.2.3 Value

Value means that the statistics and data are useful, easy to access, remain relevant, and support understanding of important issues. Value includes improving existing statistics and creating new ones through discussion and collaboration with stakeholders, and being responsible and efficient in the collection, sharing and use of statistical information.

• Relevance to users (V1) – These publications are produced to help the Council, other organisations and the public to understand the impact and implementation of the Council’s guidelines and other work on sentencing practice. This helps to promote transparency in sentencing. The Council invites views on its work and runs occasional seminars where interested stakeholders can attend, learn about the Council’s work and offer their views, which the Council takes into account. Any upcoming events are advertised on the Council’s News webpage, and contact details are provided in various places, including on the ‘Contact us’ page of the website. Users can sign-up for email updates if interested, or get in touch with feedback on specific topics via the means provided in each publication. Members of the statistics team also attend relevant events organised by academics and others with an interest in sentencing analysis and research, including round-table events, seminars and workshops, and use these opportunities to speak to attendees about the Council’s recent analytical work and invite feedback on how improvements could be made.
• Accessibility (V2) – For guideline evaluations, reports are published as soon as the analysis has been quality assured and peer reviewed, on the date pre-announced on the Council’s website. Resource assessments are published at the same time as the guidelines they are intended to accompany. The Council has recently updated its processes and outputs to ensure that publications are as accessible as possible to all users, including those who use assistive technologies. This includes publishing in HTML format, adding alternative text to images, removing unnecessary formatting and footnotes, using plain English and following the recommended guidance around symbols, shorthand, tables and charts.
• Clarity and insight (V3) – Statistics are provided in a clear way, accompanied by charts and tables where relevant, and with clear signposting to any other relevant information. Government Analysis Function guidance is followed so that analysis is presented using the most up-to-date recommendations on layout, style, etc, taking into account accessibility needs.
• Innovation and improvement (V4) – Methods and sources are regularly reviewed to make sure that the most appropriate and best quality evidence is used for each publication, and that we can make any relevant improvements for the future. Over time, more use has been made of research with sentencers and analysis of transcripts of Crown Court judges’ sentencing remarks within resource assessments, as it has been identified that these are valuable forms of evidence of the likely impact of a guideline on sentencing practice and so are useful in informing resource impact estimates. Analysts in the OSC work with analysts across government and beyond to keep up to date with any methodological developments. For example, the Council worked with time series analysis experts at the Office for National Statistics for the work on estimating the cumulative impact of guidelines on prison places, and with academics to develop a method for measuring consistency in sentencing. These collaborations meant that the analysis could incorporate the most innovative and appropriate methods to achieve the objectives of the work, and also provide the best quality to users.
• Efficiency and proportionality (V5) – These publications utilise a variety of data sources, many of which are not collected for the purpose of inclusion in these analyses. For the data collection exercises the Council conducts in courts, it monitors its processes and reduces the burden on sentencers by making it as simple as possible for them to provide the data, and for as little data as possible to be collected. During the running of the exercises, the Council regularly monitors progress and makes changes along the way to ensure exercises continue to run as efficiently as possible.

3. Get in touch

If you have any comments, questions or feedback on any of our analytical publications or on this statement, please get in touch via email to research@sentencingcouncil.gov.uk.