You asked
I'd like to request information of the procedure for making economic data releases, retail sales, GDP figures etc. How is this information released to the public, through what channels, and how can a normal person access this, rather than through a data provider?
We said
Thank you for your request.
Our mission is guided by the Statistics for Public Good strategy. One of the core principles is to be ambitious and to "answer the critical research questions the public needs Governments to answer, and informing the decisions that citizens, businesses and civil society take".
Our goal is to do this "rapidly and transparently to reach the widest audience that we can".
Our website is our primary channel for reaching the public and we produce statistical bulletins for all our key economic data, providing essential commentary and main points on key trends and developments in the economy, as well as more in-depth analysis articles.
Our social media account on Twitter @ONS is followed by more than 313,000 people and we publish headline data and key trends on this channel simultaneously with the release of new economic publications.
Our media relations team also provides a summary of economic releases to a wide range of media organisations in order to disseminate than information further.