The Official Statistics (Scotland) Amendment Order 2026

Made: 28th January 2026

Coming into force in accordance with article 1

The Scottish Ministers make the following Order in exercise of the powers conferred by section 6(1)(b)(ii) and (2) of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007[^f00001] and all other powers enabling them to do so.

In accordance with section 6(3) of that Act the Scottish Ministers have consulted the Statistics Board.

In accordance with section 65(6)(a) of that Act[^f00002] a draft of this instrument has been laid before and approved by resolution of the Scottish Parliament.

Citation and commencement

1

This Order may be cited as the Official Statistics (Scotland) Amendment Order 2026 and comes into force on the same day as section 1 of the Education (Scotland) Act 2025[^f00003] comes into force for all purposes.

Amendment of the Official Statistics (Scotland) Order 2008

2

• (1) The Official Statistics (Scotland) Order 2008[^f00004] is amended as follows.

• (2) In the schedule—

• (a) omit “Scottish Qualifications Authority”,

• (b) where alphabetically appropriate, insert “Qualifications Scotland”[^f00005].

Signed

JENNY GILRUTH — A member of the Scottish Government — 28th January 2026

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Order)

Explanatory Note

This Order specifies that wholly Scottish devolved statistics produced, or to be produced, by Qualifications Scotland are official statistics. “Scottish devolved statistics” is defined in section 66 of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 (“the 2007 Act”).

This Order amends the Official Statistics (Scotland) Order 2008 by adding Qualifications Scotland to the list of persons specified as producers of official statistics and removing the Scottish Qualifications Authority from that list.

Official statistics are statistics produced by the Statistics Board, a government department, the Scottish Administration, a Welsh ministerial authority, a Northern Ireland department, or any other person acting on behalf of the Crown, under section 6(1)(a) of the 2007 Act, and such other statistics specified by order made under section 6(1)(b).

Footnotes

[^f00001]: 2007 c. 18.

[^f00002]: Section 65(6)(a) has been modified by paragraph 5 of schedule 3 of the Interpretation and Legislative Reform (Scotland) Act 2010 (asp 10).

[^f00003]: 2025 asp 11.

[^f00004]: S.S.I. 2008/131, amended by S.S.I. 2010/448, S.S.I. 2012/196 and S.S.I. 2019/416.

[^f00005]: See section 1(1) of the Education (Scotland) Act 2025 (asp 11).