Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007

12 Assessment

(1) At the request of the appropriate authority the Board must, in accordance with this Part, assess and determine whether the Code of Practice for Statistics under section 10 has been complied with in relation to any official statistics.

(2) If under subsection (1) the Board determines that the Code has been complied with, it must designate the statistics as “National Statistics”; but otherwise it must decline so to designate them.

(3) A request under subsection (1) may not be withdrawn.

(4) The person responsible for any official statistics in relation to which an assessment is being made under subsection (1) must provide the Board with such information about the statistics as it may reasonably require.

(5) The Board must publish the results of any assessment under subsection (1).

(6) The Board may in exercising its functions under subsection (1) take into account information or advice received from any person.

(7) In subsection (1) the “appropriate authority” in relation to any official statistics is a Minister of the Crown, subject to the following—

(a) the National Statistician is the appropriate authority in relation to statistics produced by the Board;

(b) the Scottish Ministers are the appropriate authority in relation to official statistics not produced by the Board which are Scottish devolved statistics;

(c) the Welsh Ministers are the appropriate authority in relation to official statistics not produced by the Board which are Welsh devolved statistics;

(d) any Northern Ireland department is the appropriate authority in relation to official statistics not produced by the Board which are Northern Ireland devolved statistics.

(8) For the purposes of this Part, any official statistics designated as National Statistics before the commencement of this section shall be regarded as having been so designated under this section.