FOI Ref: FOI/2022/4695
You asked
Under the Freedom of Information act could you please supply me with the list of names for those people who receive ONS reports in advance of the official announcement.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry,
Equality of access to official statistics is a fundamental principle of statistical good practice. As of 1 July 2017, pre-release access – the sharing of ONS official statistics in their final form prior to publication – was removed in all but exceptional circumstances.
All instances of the National Statistician granting exceptional pre-release access to ONS official statistics are documented on the ONS website. A full list is provided in the following links:
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 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 the Bank of England, HMRC and ONS for exceptional pre-release access – March 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
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.
For further information about ending pre-release access for ONS official 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).