The Code of Practice for Official Statistics says ministers must "ensure that no statement or comment - based on prior knowledge - is issued to the press or published ahead of the publication of the statistics" and reminds them of their duty "to promote trust and maximise public value" of official data.

BBC: Building trust in building statistics

Complete transparency is required by the National Statistics Code of Practice, which I put in place to safeguard issues of governance and integrity.

ECONOMIST: Turkey and Europe

Sir Michael described the publication of the first figures as "irregular and inconsistent" with the UK Statistics Authority's code of practice and the Ministerial Code, and said it should not happen again.

BBC: UK Border Agency

The UKBA said it took its responsibilities under the Statistics Authority's code of practice seriously.

BBC: UK Border Agency

This means the UK Statistics Authority, which monitors statistics to ensure good practice, had no remit to check the figures against the code of practice.

BBC: MPs warn statistics use may damage public trust

"Many users have treated them as official statistics, and have assumed that they should have been published in accordance with the Code of Practice, " he continues.

BBC: The difference between ��research�� and ��statistics��