Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the 35 breaches by his Department of the Code of Practice for Statistics between January 2009 and July 2021.

There have been 35 breaches of the Code of Practice for Official Statistics by Defra (24) and associated bodies (11) since January 2009. The most common reasons for breaches of the Code have been timing (i.e. publications not released at 9.30am) and pre-release access (i.e. publication shared with ineligible individuals before publication).

The Head of Profession for Statistics is responsible for the release and content of statistics in the Department. All breaches are individually reviewed and reported to the UK Statistics Authority, including the impact of the breach and corrective actions to prevent re-occurrence. Details of Defra group breaches can be found at:

Defra group breaches of the Code of Practice for Official Statistics - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)