Equality of access to official statistics is a fundamental principle of statistical good practice. As of 1 July 2017, pre-release access to Office for National Statistics (ONS) statistics was removed in all but exceptional circumstances. Whenever a decision is taken by the National Statistician to grant pre-release access in future, details will be published here.
For further information about ending pre-release access for ONS statistics, please see the letter from the former National Statistician John Pullinger to Sir David Norgrove, Chair of the UK Statistics Authority (15 June 2017) and Sir David Norgrove's reply (15 June 2017).
Exchange of letters between Jonathan Athow and Ben Broadbent regarding exceptional pre-release access – July 2017
Exchange of letters between John Pullinger, Iain Bell and Robert Chote regarding exceptional pre-release access – October 2017
Exchange of letters between Jonathan Athow and Robert Chote regarding exceptional pre-release access – February 2018
Exchange of letters between Jonathan Athow and Ben Broadbent regarding exceptional pre-release access – March 2019
Exchange of letters between Jonathan Athow and Ben Broadbent regarding exceptional pre-release access – February 2020
Exchange of letters between Jonathan Athow and Robert Chote regarding exceptional pre-release access: February 2020 – 14 February 2020
Exchange of letters between ONS, Bank of England and HMRC for exceptional pre-release access – June 2020
Exchange of letters between Jonathan Athow and Ben Broadbent regarding exceptional pre-release access – September 2020
Exchange of letters between Richard Hughes (OBR) and Jonathan Athow (ONS) for exceptional pre-release access – November 2020
Exchange of letters between Ben Broadbent (Bank of England), Sean Whellams (HMRC) and Jonathan Athow (ONS) for an amendment to exceptional pre-release access – 2 December 2020
Exchange of letters between ONS and UK Boundary Commissions regarding electorate data – 23 December 2020
Exchange of letters between the Bank of England, HMRC and ONS for exceptional pre-release access – March 2022
Exchange of letters between the Bank of England and ONS for an amendment to exceptional pre-release access June 2022 – 6 June 2022
Exchange of letters between the Office for Budget Responsiblity and ONS for exceptional pre-release access – September 2022
Exchange of letters between the Bank of England and ONS for exceptional pre-release access – October 2022
Exchange of letters between the Bank of England, HMRC and ONS for exceptional pre-release access 2023 – 1 March 2023
Exchange of letters between the Bank of England and ONS for an amendment to exceptional pre-release access September 2022 – 21 September 2023
Exchange of letters between Richard Hughes (OBR) and Mike Keoghan (ONS) for exceptional pre-release access – 26 September 2023
Exchange of letters between Mike Keoghan (ONS), Richard Hughes (OBR) and Ben Broadbent (BoE) for exceptional pre-release access - 23 October 2023
Exchange of letters between the HM Treasury and ONS for exceptional pre-release access to Public Sector Productivity baselines - 15 November 2023
Exchange of letters between UKHSA, DHSC and ONS for exceptional pre-release access to Winter Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Study statistics - 6 December 2023
Exchange of letters between Mike Keoghan (ONS) and Ben Broadbent (BoE) - 7 December 2023
Exchange of letters between Cabinet Office and ONS for exceptional pre-release access to Winter Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Study statistics - 19 December 2023
Exchange of letters between the Scottish Government and ONS for exceptional pre-release access to Winter Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Study statistics - 19 December 2023
Exchange of letters between Emma Rourke (ONS) and Ben Broadbent Bank of England - 25 January 2024
Previously, under regulations made under the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007, the ONS briefed certain accredited news agencies on some market-sensitive economic releases shortly in advance of the standard 9:30am publications, under secure conditions that ensured they could not be reported until publication time. In March 2020 ONS moved the publication of its market-sensitive economic releases to 7:00am and this practice ended.