Editorial policy

How sources are chosen, how a figure is shown, and what the site will not do. Each rule is stated once. A missing cell is not zero.

Source selection

Every figure comes from a source in the registry. The registry lists each publisher, its licence, and every dataset read from it. A source has a tier: primary source, independent evidence, polling, reporting, or context. A figure on a table is from a primary source. The registry is on Sources, and each dataset has its own page under Datasets.

A source is added when it publishes the figure itself, names the period and the unit, and can be retrieved again. A source is not added because a number is quoted from it elsewhere.

Evidence standards

One figure, one file. Each figure is one number from one published file, with its series code, period, published date and retrieved date beside it. Figures from different books are not added together.

Null is not zero. A cell the publisher did not fill is left blank. It is not shown as zero, and it is not filled in from another file.

Forecast stays apart from outturn. An OBR or departmental forecast is shown as a forecast. It is not the answer to what was collected, spent or borrowed.

Each sentence has a statement kind: a fact from a file, a calculation done here, an official statement, a party statement, a poll result, a news report, an academic finding, analysis, or an inference. The kind is shown. An evidence card carries its claim type, its confidence, its sources by tier, and a line saying what the figure is not.

Corrections

A publisher revision is stored as a revision row beside the earlier value. A failed check is stored as a quality issue. A mistake made here is a dated note. The full rule, and how to report an error, is on Corrections.

News aggregation

News is not aggregated yet. When it is, the site will hold metadata only: the outlet, the headline, the date and the link. No article text is copied, and a news report is never a source for a figure.

Public opinion

A survey is one row per survey, with the exact question wording, the fieldwork dates, the sample and the publisher. Surveys are not averaged. The site never shows one number for what the public thinks.

Political neutrality

There are no truth scores and no left-to-right rankings. A government claim and a party claim are both shown as claims, with the evidence beside them. The site does not say who is right. It shows what was published.

AI use

Ask the ledger composes answers from retrieved records. What the model may and may not do is on AI policy.

Conflicts and advertising

There is no advertising, no sponsorship and no paid placement. Aaron Gammon runs the site at Inferrex. No party, department or publisher pays for it or reviews it before publication.