Published date:
This Statement is issued in accordance with the requirements set out under Principle 2 of the Code of Practice for Official Statistics and sets out Probation Statistics & Research Branch’s intention to be open and transparent about any revisions it makes to Official Statistics and to ensure that users of statistics produced by Probation Statistics & Research Branch have easy access to comprehensive information about those revisions Revisions to statistical data can be required for a variety of reasons, especially when working with large administrative databases that are constantly changing on a daily basis.
Any such revisions are usually minor in nature with minimal implications for the interpretation of the data.
Probation Statistics & Research Branch endeavours to produce the best figures it can, in light of the available information and resources. However, improvements and consequential revisions can result, as the Branch continually strives to improve the methods and sources. Some statistical outputs are more subject to revisions than others, for example our quarterly caseload statistics are provisional and subject to revision/change whereas our complete financial year statistics are not subject to planned revision.
Where required, Probation Statistics & Research Branch will make it clear which official statistics are provisional and subject to a scheduled pattern of revision. Our methods will be kept under review to minimise the scale of revisions. In general, our quarterly caseload statistics are provisional and will be superseded by the next update of the same statistic as we progress through the financial year reporting period (e.g. when the Quarter 2 statistics are produced – the revised figures for Quarter 1 will also be included).
The publication of the finalised statistics at the end of the financial year therefore contain the complete official statistics for the year in question and for the various intervening periods that provisional statistics may have been provided for.