Institutional and legal framework Institutional and legal framework of the national statistical system: of the national statistical system:

the national system of official the national system of official statisticsstatistics

Management seminar on global assessment

Yalta, 23.25 September 2009Session 6

Heinrich Brüngger

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Define the limits of the Define the limits of the national statistical system: national statistical system: institutionallyinstitutionallyWho is within the national statistical

system:◦ NSI◦ Other recognised producers of official

statistics◦ Statistical Council or Committees with

strong representation of users if foreseen in the statistical law (or census law)

◦ Any coordination body between producers of official statistics (whether foreseen in the law itself or only at a lower legal level)

◦ Any subgroup the Statistical Council or Committee may set up

◦ Any project group a producer may set up (normally without explicit legal basis)

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Other recognised Other recognised producersproducersWith the possible exception of the

National Bank (not part of government), they should not be listed in the statistical law itself, but only in the statistical programmes

Before being included in the statistical programmes, candidates for other producers have to demonstrate and be certified that they are able and willing to produce and disseminate official statistics according to the international standards (fundamental principles/code of practice as well as applicable sectoral standards)

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Other recognised producers Other recognised producers (ctd.)(ctd.)It is an important part of the

coordination task of the NSI when preparing the statistical programmes to assess whether other producers fulfil or continue to fulfil the prerequisites

Recognised producers have to assign their official statistics activities to one organisational sub-unit: only such sub-units are part of the statistical system, not the rest of the organisations (ministries) to which they belong

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Legal consequences of being Legal consequences of being recognised as producer of recognised as producer of official statisticsofficial statisticsActivities of official statistics as listed in the

medium-term or annual programmes can only be assigned to NSI or a recognised producer

Confidential data can be exchanged more easily within the statistical system (the statistical law specifies the rules) than flow from an agency within the system to a user outside the system

All producers have to strictly observe the fundamental principles, notably confidentiality, impartiality, and the principle of simultaneous access for all users

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Coordination of the national Coordination of the national statistical systemstatistical systemFor both efficiency and credibility

considerations, small countries (<30 mio. population) should concentrate as many activities of official statistics as possible in the NSI, and not spread the various scarce skills over too many institutions. This is especially valid for statistical surveys

Arrangements should be found (if necessary through a explicit article in the statistical law) that allows the NSI to be partially financed from another governmental agency for selected data collection activities of official statistics for the results of which it is the main user, and if this user agrees that all principles of official statistics should be fully respected

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Coordination (ctd.)Coordination (ctd.)The NSI has to be the main coordinator of

the system by law, with instruments mentioned in the law, notably the preparation and evaluation of statistical programmes and the setting of standards for the whole system by the chief statistician

The statistical infrastructure set up by the NSI should be available for use by other producers.

NSI should also be able to give advice on all aspects of official statistics, and build up a basic knowledge also in areas that are in the responsibility of other producers

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Institutional aspects: NSIInstitutional aspects: NSIThe NSI is the only government agency

whose core task is official statisticsIn order to be credible in this exclusive

focus on statistics, the NSI should not have any responsibility for non-statistical activities (such as the maintenance of administrative registers)

Statistical activities outside official statistics can be carried out by the NSI on the basis of transparent rules, cost reimbursement, and clear distinction in the status of the output from the main output (results of official statistics)

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What is official statistics?What is official statistics?Activities of official statistics: what is in the

statistical programmeResults of official statistics: outcome of one

or more activity of official statistics that:◦ Are produced and disseminated with respect of

all fundamental principles◦ Are based on conceptual decisions taken by

the international or national community of official statistics (and not imposed by a single user)

◦ Gives a numerical estimation of a publicly relevant mass characteristic that allows comparisons over time and between groups/regions/sectors/countries

◦ Have followed rules of quality control during the whole production process

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What is not a result of official What is not a result of official statisticsstatistics Not all government activities implying number-

crunching are official statistics. Examples that are not:◦ Reporting of administrative units about their

activities (they may be an input into official statistics)

◦ Ad hoc tabulation of basic data according to the specifications of one specific user (may become part of the core results in a later period if in line with standard definitions and of interest to the public)

◦ Results generated by researchers with microdata obtained from the NSI

◦ Transformation of results of official statistics according to the needs of a specific user (e.g. for analytical or forecasting purposes)

◦ Use of official statistics in models that include assumptions that cannot be checked periodically against independent empirical data

◦ Opinion polls or ad hoc surveys10

NSI involvement in statistical NSI involvement in statistical activities outside official activities outside official statisticsstatisticsNSI may (within the limits of the law) give

access for researchers to microdata generated by activities of official statistics for their own statistical activities

NSI may be more involved in such activities by contributing its know-how, if it does not undermine the credibility for official statistics. The responsibility of the NSI must be clearly limited, and the status of the output has to be different

In the same way, NSI may cooperate with research organisations

Some official statistics have started as research activities, and only be taken over by official statistics once the methodology was proven to be sufficiently robust and accurate 11

System-wide responsibility of System-wide responsibility of NSINSIThe NSI is only agency that should have

a keen interest in making the national statistical work as one system under common principles; resources have to be devoted to this task

The user wants to have results that he/she can trust because it is part of official statistics (quality label); the general user should not have to worry about the division of work within the system

The chief statistician bears the ultimate system-wide responsibility for the fitness of use of the released results and the professional adequacy of the underlying processes 12

Thank you for your attention

Questions and comments are encouraged

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