UK statistics agency to make 7 a.m. data release time permanent

Britain’s Office for National Statistics announced on Friday that it would make permanent a pandemic-related change under which it brought forward the release time of key economic data to 7 a.m. local time from 9.30 a.m.

The ONS said the earlier release time allowed the latest figures on growth, inflation, unemployment and other measures of the economy to reach a wider audience.

It also allowed its officials to explain the data on breakfast television and radio news shows.

“The earlier release time has better positioned these important statistics in the daily news cycle and made them more accessible to large audiences,” the ONS said.

“It has also provided greater opportunity for the voices of the producers of statistics to be heard directly through media channels and reduced the scope for key data to be misrepresented,” it added.

A 9.30 a.m. release time was the standard for ONS data before the coronavirus pandemic, and will continue for figures which the ONS does not view as market-sensitive.

The change had been subject to review by Britain’s Office for Statistics Regulation, which conducted a consultation. It found three quarters of respondents preferred economic data to be released at 9.30 a.m.

However, on Thursday the regulator ruled that in future it would generally let the ONS decide when best to release data.

Before the pandemic, economic data had been provided to reporters from Reuters and other news organisations in a secure room at the ONS’s London office before release. This practice will not resume, the ONS said.