About
How Explained is made
Each piece takes one report and tries to make it make sense. Here is exactly how that happens, and what to hold us to.
Two kinds of number
A published figure is a number a publisher printed, such as the ONS or HMRC. It is drawn as a solid line in ink, with the publisher and period written beside it.
Our estimate is a number we worked out from published figures. It is drawn as a dashed line in pencil grey, its label always begins "Our estimate", and tapping it shows the sum and every figure that went in.
If an official body has published its own figure for the same thing, we show theirs beside ours.
Who makes it
Pieces are researched and drafted with AI tools. Every published figure is checked automatically against the publisher's own file. Every estimate shows its working. A person at datamap.uk reads each piece before it goes live.
When we get something wrong
We correct it on the page and say so at the top, with the date and what changed. We do not quietly edit a number.
Taking sides
We don't. Where people disagree, a piece says what each side argues, shows the figures that bear on it, and says what the figures cannot settle.