Statistical information used to provide an informed background to government policy and decision making or in Ministerial communications will usually be founded upon the outcomes of mathematical operations performed on a sample of observations or some other factual information. The scientific study of facts and other observations allows descriptive approximations, estimates, summaries, projections, descriptions of relationships between observations, or outcomes of mathematical models, etc. to be derived.

A distinguishing feature of statistical information is that it is founded to at least some degree on accepted scientific or mathematical principles. Statistical information is therefore distinguished by being i) derived from some recorded or repeatable methodology, and ii) qualified by some explicit or implied measures of quality, integrity, and relevance.

This should not imply that the term 'statistical information' only applies to where standards of methodology and relevant measures are particularly high. What distinguishes statistical information is that the limitations of the methodology, and the relevant measures of quality, etc., allow for a rational assessment of the validity of the information used as an informed background to the formulation and development of government policy.

Departmental policy papers and Ministerial communications may contain headline statistical information, but are less likely to contain all the available methodology and qualifications that support the statistics, nor the underlying observations or facts from which the statistics are derived. Therefore it is good practice when producing such papers and communications to include a footnote or annex containing an outline of the statistical methodology, any available qualifications of quality, relevance and integrity, and the source of the underlying observations or facts. When the headline statistical information is disclosed to an applicant, the footnote or annex should be disclosed simultaneously.