Revisions Policy v2

1 Introduction

1.1 Aim

The aim of this policy reflects NES’s commitment to T3 of the Code of Practice, which involves releasing statistics in an open and transparent manner that promotes public confidence.

It describes how scheduled revisions and unscheduled corrections should be handled with NHS Education for Scotland.

1.2 Code of Practice

The Trustworthiness Principle of the Code of Practice states that

Trustworthiness Principle

Building confidence in the people and organisations that produce statistics and data

Within this is a “Be Transparent” standard.

Q3.9

Release revisions and corrections of errors transparently and as soon as possible in line with the organisation’s published policy, being clear about the nature and scale of change

1.3 Scope

This guidance should be followed when considering or making revisions to publications produced by NES including publications made available under embargo

It excludes:

  • Draft publications shared for comment or quality assurance prior to being made final
  • Responses to Parliamentary Questions, Freedom of Information Requests or Ad-hoc Information Requests.
  • Reports released as management information.

2 Revisions and corrections

2.1 Scheduled revision

Scheduled revisions are updates to previously published statistics, analysis or data. They include:

  • updates to previously published provisional data
  • changes to coding or classification structures
  • improvements by incorporating improved methods

2.2 Unscheduled corrections

Unscheduled corrections are amendments that are made to published statistics in response to the identification of mistakes following their initial publication e.g. an error in methodology, calculation, presentation or interpretation.

Unscheduled corrections should be made as soon as possible, either before the next scheduled release of the publication, or as part of it.

3 Correction and Revision Process

The process for a correction or revision should be applied in an open and transparent manner with approval obtained from the relevant individual(s).

3.1 Applying the unscheduled correction

This section is intended to guide staff on the process for assessing and handling unscheduled corrections.

  1. The Correction form should be used to document the issue, including its scale, nature, cause and impact, along with the plan on when the correction should be applied. Once completed the form should be saved into the relevant publication folder on the network.

  2. When the unscheduled correction is applied to the previously published statistic a revisions statement should be made available at the time the revision is released into the public domain. This should describe the scale, nature, cause and impact of the change and the date that this was applied.

This should be placed in two places.

  1. A short correction notice should be added in a yellow banner titled “Revised:” to the website through Umbraco. This acts as a note on the publication that an error has been identified and includes high level details.

  1. A more detailed description of the error should be added to the Quality Report or Notes section of the dashboard.
For example:

A serious error in the methodology for calculating vacancy rate has been uncovered and this has now been corrected. Previously, it did not include mental health vacancies. The impact of this is that the overall rate for Scotland in 2025 should be 10.3% and not 5.6% as reported previously. The methodology has been corrected and applied to the historic data with all rates revised accordingly. This was updated on 10 September 2025.

  1. Relevant data should be marked as ‘revised’ by adding a superscript r or by applying a tooltip or heading. Staff should make a judgement call on the most appropriate place to position tooltip or label. If all data in a table has been revised then include it in the chart header or if data for an individual time period only has been revised then it may be more appropriate to include it as an individual tooltip.

  2. All historical versions of the dashboard should be retained within the publication folder on the secure network.

  3. Where the tooltip has been applied to individual charts it is important to remember that this will need to be removed at an appropriate time in future.

3.2 Applying a scheduled revision

3.2.1 Publication of provisional data

When provisional data is published for the first time:

  1. A statement of intent to revise should be included in the publication, giving notice of the timetable and extent of the planned revision.
For example:

These statistics are sourced from dynamic data sources and will therefore be subject to future planned revisions. At each quarterly release the statistics for the previous 2 quarters will be revised. These changes are usually small updates due to data being added updating historic GP contracts.

  1. Data should be labelled as ‘provisional’ by using the superscript letter p or a tooltip. Staff should make a judgement call on the most appropriate place to place the tooltip or label e.g. if all data in a dashboard is to be revised in the future then include it on the chart title or if data for an individual time period only is to be revised in the future then it may be more appropriate to include on the data point itself. Ensure that when annual and quarterly information are presented together the provisional p label is applied consistently.

  2. The data must include a note which states the source of the data, the publication date or the extract date and also an indication of the fact that data labelled p is provisional and will therefore be subject to revision.

The recommendation is that the source of the information and a date stamp should be the FIRST footnote to accompany all data tables published by NES.

For example:

Source: GP Employment data extracted on 17 August 2021. All data marked p is deemed to be provisional and may be subject to change in future publications.

All data should be date stamped as per the above example as this will help with the management of version control.

  1. A schedule should be published alongside the data describing at which point the provisional data will be finalised, e.g. the next time the data is released, or after a set period of time. At this stage staff should remove all provisional superscripts from the finalised data.

3.2.2 Changes to coding, classification structures or methodology

If the scheduled revision is to make a change to coding, classification structures or methodology are to be addressed then advance notification should be given. The advanced notice should alert users to the scale, nature, cause and impact of the scheduled revision, as well as details on when the change is going to occur.

User engagement should already have been completed and the advance notification is merely confirmation of the planned implementation of the proposed change.

For statistical releases that are quarterly, or more frequent, advance announcement should take place no later than the publication immediately prior to the release that contains the changes.

For example:

A new sub job family, Anaesthetics Associate will be introduced in January 2024 and as a result some roles previously recorded in other sub job families will be mapped to this new classification structure. This change will be applied at the next scheduled release in March 2024.

After the update has been made, the note should be retained in the Quality Report or the Notes section of the dashboard.

If the update affects previously published data, affected data should be labelled as revised by using the superscript letter r or a tooltip. Use their discretion over the placement of the tooltip or label, ensuring that when annual and quarterly information are presented together the revised ‘r’ label is applied consistently.

4 Roles and Responsibilities

Revisions and unscheduled corrections can affect public confidence in the published statistics.

  • All staff should adhere to the processes and procedures set down in the Statistical Revisions Guidance.
  • The Lead Official is responsible for ensuring that the guidance is embedded as part of the normal day-to-day workings of their respective business areas.
  • The Head of Profession for Statistics is responsible for ensuring that the guidance reflects obligations and best practice in statistical governance and that it is consistent with related guidance and legislation.
  • The PHS Statistical Governance team is responsible for leading awareness of the NES Statistical Revisions Guidance and ensuring that any changes to the document are highlighted and communicated swiftly to all staff.
  • The Head of Profession for Statistics has final responsibility for ensuring NES complies fully with the processes and procedures laid down in this document and where necessary will make the ultimate decisions on specific cases of revisions

Version History

Date Author Notes
01/10/2025 Ben Tait First draft
15/10/2025 Ben Tait Comments received from Lead Official
22/10/2025 Ben Tait Comments received from PHS Statistical Governance Team