| Information needed | Response |
|---|---|
| Title and link to statistical output | Laboratory reports of norovirus in Scotland. Week ending 19 September 2021 |
| Name of producer organisation | Public Health Scotland |
| Name and contact details of person dealing with report | Scott Wilson scott.wilson11@phs.scot |
| Name and contact details of Head of Profession for Statistics or Lead Official | Scott Heald scott.heald@phs.scot |
| Link to published statement about the breach (if relevant) | |
| Date of breach report | 23/09/2021 |
| Information needed | Response |
|---|---|
| Relevant principle(s) and practice(s) | T3 Orderly Release (T3.6 Statistics should be released to all users at 9.30am on a weekday) |
| Date of occurrence of breach | 23/09/2020
|
T3.6 of the Code of Practice for Statistics states that Statistics should be released to all users at 9.30am on a weekday. The Laboratory reports of norovirus in Scotland is a weekly report which follows this guidance.
For the weekly update on Thursday 23rd September 2021, there was a data issue which caused a delay in finalising the publication. This was a minor issue which was fixed quickly and then final assurance on data quality was re-checked.
This meant that the Laboratory reports of norovirus in Scotland report was published at 10:30am, missing the time slot guidance by 1 hour. The link was updated at this time and all parts of the report and metadata were made available.
Following the later than agreed publication go-live, there has been no reaction from anyone in the public or from any of our stakeholders, that we are aware of at this point. Due to the short time nature of this delay there was little time to release any explanation statement to users and therefore no communications was made between 9:30am and 10:30am.
No press reports were required before or after the publication. Further, the subject of these statistics does not include a sensitive or high-profile subject. Therefore the impact of releasing this publication late by 1-hour is negligible.
The Statistical Governance team have since had communication with the analytical team to offer support relating to the Code of Practice for Statistics, though as this was a one-off incident there are no ongoing issues to resolve. The Statistical Governance team will continue to offer advice whenever required to any analytical team on any future publications.
The Statistical Governance team are in regular contact with analytical, research, publishing and communication colleagues across the organisation. Recent training session with various departments have helped to increase the understanding on statistical governance requirements and guidance within the Code of Practice for Statistics and regular communication channels with these colleagues have been established. The Statistical Governance team aims to maintain these training and communication channels.