5 Why use the AP and exceptions

5.1 Why use the AP tools?

Reasons for prioritising use of the AP tools include:

  • Aiding reproducibility through versioned data and code. Reproducibility is the foundation of good analysis, allowing for future auditing of work and robust Quality Assurance (Best Practice & Impact division, Office for National Statistics).
  • Being able to handle considerably more data than legacy analytical applications and enabling analytical processes to be run more quickly.
  • Enabling multiple analysts to collaborate on the same bit of code simultaneously using GitHub, while also separating code in development from code that has been reviewed/QAd.

5.2 Exceptions to using the AP tools

Exceptions where non-AP tools may be preferred for the storage and processing stages (see Recommended Analytical IT tools section) include where:

  • Actions are straightforward or unlikely to be repeated (including for QA purposes).
  • Data cannot currently be stored on the AP e.g. Police National Computer extracts.
  • Creating online surveys, for which MS Forms, MoJ Forms or Smart Survey13 (which has much more advanced functionality) are appropriate.
  • For a specific task the benefits of using a non-AP tool are substantially greater than the costs.

Even where there is a valid exception, the approach taken should be as similar as possible (also considering proportionality) to that using the AP tools and the recommended ways of working.


  1. Contact the Data & Analysis Survey Group (in particular Giles Stephenson) to use this.↩︎