Revisions and Corrections Policy for SQA statistics

Introduction

Official Statistics are produced in adherence with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

Principle T3.9 of the code states "Scheduled revisions or unscheduled corrections to the statistics and data should be released as soon as practicable. The changes should be handled transparently in line with a published policy".

This policy sets out the principles and procedures that will be used by the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) when revisions and/or corrections are required for statistical publications on the SQA website.

Revisions

SQA publishes attainment statistics on certification day in August annually. These are provisional figures of national attainment. The use of provisional data can be beneficial, providing an early indication of trends to users. Following Post Results Services/Appeals, Malpractice and other post certification procedures, a revised summary of national attainment is published in December.

August data will be marked as provisional to ensure that users are aware of the associated data issues when using these early figures. This will also help to make clear to users that when looking at trends over time, August and December attainment statistics should not be mixed and differences should be highlighted.

In addition to scheduled revisions of data, there can also be revisions due to changes in methodology or systems that improve the accuracy of statistics. These types of revisions are usually planned and carried out at regular intervals and will be communicated to our users via our website.

On occasion, revisions can be the result of an immediate need to address identified issues. These will be clearly communicated to users via our website as soon as practicable.

In dealing with revisions, SQA will:

Corrections

Corrections are a result of errors and should not be confused with revisions. While our statistical publications go through rigorous quality control procedures, errors can occur.

In practice, corrections are likely to fall into one of two categories:

  1. Corrections that do not alter a user’s interpretation of the statistics.
  2. Corrections that alter a user’s interpretation of the statistics.

In dealing with corrections, SQA will:

Responsibilities

The Head of Profession (Head of Data and Analytics) has final responsibility for deciding on any action necessary to comply with these procedures.