A. Skalitz – INSEE 26 novembre 2008

The French Business Register : from a quality approach ….

….to a statistical register

From a quality approach to a statistical register November 2008

Description of SIRENE

SIRENE : a national business register in which all businesses and

their local units are registered since 1994 : a unique identification number, at the

core of the inter-administrative systemContent of SIRENE :

identification data : civil status of businesses, legal form, the date it was set up and when it ceased trading

address of local units a code identifying the principal business activity

carried out, number of employees as SIRENE is used in the areas of statistics and trade :

economic classification variables (list drawn up after consulting statisticians using the system)

From a quality approach to a statistical register November 2008

Inventory of users and requirements

Users Some requirements

Inter-administrative use

(administrative partners involved in managing the register and businesses)

Unique identificationExhaustiveness (even units which are registered only for the needs of a partner) Legal termination

Dissemination of information

Address, Activity code

Statistical use :business demography basis for sampling“survey” managers

Exhaustiveness but reference groups

IdentificationStratification dataEconomic termination

From a quality approach to a statistical register November 2008

An “administrative” approach of the quality

Quality is taken into account in day-to-day management :

a workstation with automated processing capabilities (receiving standardized “administrative” information via EDI) which guarantees uniform processing

checks into the data-processing flowQuality is taken into account as an “independent

component” (“quality operations”) : at the initiative of register managers at the request of those in charge of surveys

The register managers bring into play quality with the limitations of an interadministrative register

Quite “administrative” approach of the quality

From a quality approach to a statistical register November 2008

Volumes of “quality operations”

Updates each year 100,000 legal units with their activity code

updated-validated 3.5 million units (legal units or local units) with employee

statistics 2 million businesses with turnover statistics updated

Checks 15,000 units checked at the request of statisticians

(wrong address for example) 15,000 possible duplicate entries examined 50,000 units possibly misidentified as operational

examinedSurveys

in 2007, 200,000 surveys-questionnaires sent for the introduction of the NACE

From a quality approach to a statistical register November 2008

Links between « quality operations » and Eurostat quality report ? 1/2

“Relevant” component the identification of statistical users and of their

expectations taken into account some “quality operations” based on the request of

statisticians“Accuracy” component

meaningless… but the “quality operations” improve the “accuracy” of the

sampling plans. Timeliness and punctuality

register daily updated by administrative partners (sometimes insufficient ?)

mass updates : data are included as soon as available discrepancies : examined as quick as possible.

From a quality approach to a statistical register November 2008

Links between « quality operations » and Eurostat quality report ? 2/2

Accessibility and clarity of the information: frozen versions of the business register (for all users or for

specific needs) produced quarterly and yearly each month : an extract of the register for the staff

responsible of the dissemination of information for all statisticians : a specific tool, to get all the data of a

list of units, at a given dateComparability of statistics :

few statistics spring from the register except “business demography”.

the day-to-day management of the register and the advanced level of automation provide comparability of statistics (in the time)

Coherence maybe a lack of the register ?

From a quality approach to a statistical register November 2008

Towards a new statistical registerProspective 1/2

Review : the use of SIRENE as a central tool for business statistics comes up against its twofold role

legal vs economic cessation exhaustiveness vs reference groups

Recent overhaul of the annual business statistics: one of its outputs “to come” is a “statistical register”

Aims of the “statistical register” : based on the “inter-administrative” register and/but closer to the requirements of the statisticians.

From a quality approach to a statistical register November 2008

Towards a new statistical registerProspective 2/2

New concepts the definition of “statistical units” the addition of specific data the definition of “reference populations”

A new “quality management” statisticians will manage quality a “quality operation” # “checking all mistakes in a

population” more “statistical” updates more automatized updates

=> classification of sources (to solve inconsistencies between several sources)

Maybe the definition of indicators to measure quality of this statistical register