The consultation record

Every comment received in this consultation is answered in public, and this is where. The consultation record is the change log of the guidance: what was raised, what we did about it, and why. It is published after comments close on Friday 30 October 2026, and it stays published beside the guidance it produced.

We publish it for the same reason we opened the drafts at all. Guidance that is revised behind a closed door asks compilers to trust an outcome they cannot inspect; a record of the changes lets a national statistician see that the objection their office raised was read, see the answer, and see whether the text moved — without having to ask us.

What the record contains

For every comment received:

Where it was about — the circular, the section, and the passage.
What kind of point it was — correction, omission, clarification, objection, support or question, and the severity the respondent assigned.
What we did — accepted and applied, considered and not taken up, duplicate of a point carried elsewhere, or noted with no change needed.
Why — the editors’ reason, in plain English.
What changed — the revision the comment produced, where it produced one.

For every structured review received:

Which circular it was about — a review is a judgement about the circular as a whole, and is never reported against any one passage.
The judgements — clarity, implementability and alignment, counted across respondents and published as counts, with the free text answered as a comment where there is free text to answer. A review that carries judgements and no free text is reported in the counts; it is a complete return, not an unanswered comment.
What we did about the pattern — where a count changed the guidance, the record says so in the same terms as it does for a comment.

What it does not contain

No comment is published beside a name. The record is anonymised: it carries no name, no email address, no submitter code, and nothing that ties one comment to another as coming from the same person or the same office. A comment’s own text is published only where the Secretariat has cleared it for publication, and cleared text is checked for identifying detail before it goes out.

Respondents who left the recognition box ticked appear once, alphabetically, in the list of consultation respondents published alongside the record — as a list of the people who took part, never against any particular comment. Named contributors to a circular appear on that circular, under the standard set out in How to comment.

What you receive

We do not send a confirmation email when a comment is filed — the receipt in the form is your immediate record, and the form keeps a copy of every receipt in your browser.

After the consultation closes we compile one response for each respondent: every comment you filed, in one document, each with the outcome and the editors’ reason, and a pointer to the revised text where your comment changed it. It goes to the email address you gave, once, when adjudication is complete. Anonymous comments are answered in the record itself, since we hold no address for them.

If you need something before then, or want a comment corrected or withdrawn, email info@oceanaccounts.org and quote your reference.