Pattern for a Statistical Law
guidelines and recommendations
for the drawing-up of a
basic statistical legislation
in transition countries changing to market economy.
Bâtiment Jean Monnet, rue Alcide de Gasperi, Luxembourg-Kirchberg
Postal address: L-2920 Luxembourg - Tel.: (352) 4301-1 (switchboard) - Telex: COMEUR LU 3423/3446
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Part 1: Introductory note...... 3
Part 2: Explanatory memorandum to the Pattern for a Statistical Law...... 4
1Package Objectives...... 4
2Package Definitions...... 4
3Package Planning, programming, implementation measures...... 5
4Package Organisation...... 6
5Package Statistical Council...... 9
6Package Principles and Technical Autonomy...... 10
7Package Collection of Information...... 11
8Package Dissemination...... 13
9Package Confidentiality...... 14
10Package Final Provisions...... 16
Part 3: Pattern for a Statistical Law...... 16
1. Package Objectives...... 16
2. Package Definitions...... 17
3. Package Planning, programming, implementation measures...... 17
4. Package Organisation...... 18
5. Package Statistical Council...... 19
6. Package Principles and Technical Autonomy...... 20
7. Package Collection of Information...... 20
8. Package Dissemination...... 21
9. Package Statistical Confidentiality...... 22
Part IIntroductory note
The aim of this project is to provide guidelines for drafting an “ideal” statistical law, which complies in contents and structure with the standards to be used in accordance with the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics, adopted by the UN Statistical Commission on 14 April1994.
As there is no ideal situation existing in the practical world, the translation of this pattern into national legislation needs to be adapted to the specificities of the countries, notably as concerns their constitutional, administrative, social and cultural environment and understanding.
Thus the project is presented in two parts:
The first part is an explanatory memorandum, consisting of “packages”. These packages describe the aspects, which should be covered by statistical legislation and the aims to be reached. References to and examples of existing legislation are given, where relevant.
The second part Statistical Law is a proposal for the translation of these packages into a legislative framework. This pattern is neither meant to be exhaustive nor to describe the minimum implementation as concerns national needs. Some aspects relating to international standards may be already installed satisfactorily into the legal system of a country by different means than statistical legislation; e.g. they may be covered by general constitutional or administrative legal provisions and/or are seen as self-evident and secured by a well-recognised practice.
On the other hand, some aspects of the packages may need more detailed explanation than given in the Articles of the pattern in order to be understood and accepted by the addressees of the law, i.e. the state’s organs implementing the statistical work and the citizen, being involved in statistics either as respondents or as users.
1
Part IIExplanatory memorandum
1Package Objectives
Coverage: Article 1
Article 1 explains the aims of the law, not its contents.
The aim is to constitute the legal basis, which shall apply to all activities and to all actors when producing Official Statistics. The Term “official statistic” is used in the pattern whereas other terms like “State Statistics” or “National Statistics” or “Public Statistics” may be used as synonyms.
By reference to “Official Statistics” the addressees of the law are informed that, whenever Official Statistics is concerned, the lawfulness is to be measured according to the provisions of this statistical law.
This clarifies also, that those activities, which may have statistical implications but are not governed by the provisions of this law, are not deemed to be Official Statistics.
Paragraph 2 describes the objectives to be met by Official Statistics.
It is important to make visible, that the destination of Official Statistics is not limited to serve the state and its institutions, but is meant to be a public good, serving all users in an impartial way as an information infrastructure and enabling the citizen to make use of their democratic rights and their entitlement to public information.
The contents of this paragraph are closely linked to the first of the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics.
2Package Definitions
Coverage: Article 2
For reasons of legislative technique terms, which are used in a legal text several times and in different contexts, but which have not already a commonly known and understood meaning, should be defined at a central place at the beginning of the law.
Thus it is advisable to have an Article on definitions in addition to the Articles which refer to such technical terms and which may also contain defining parts.
As concerns the terms, which need to be defined here, there no fixed pattern. This depends very much on the individual situation and understanding in the respective Country. Thus, Article 2 of the pattern should be understood as an open list.
Indispensable is to have a clear picture what is meant by “Official Statistics” (or the respective term used), in order to distinguish between the activities governed by the Law and those, which are out of the scope. The same applies to the term “production of Official Statistics” to make clear, that all activities in this context, which are necessary for the organisation and implementation are subject to the provisions of the Law.
The definition given in the pattern for Official Statistics has used basic elements from the respective definition proposed in the Recommendation No. R (97) 18 of the Council of Europe. Elements, which are already introduced in Article 1 paragraph 2 of the pattern, need not to be mentioned again.
The definition of Production of Official Statistics is closely linked to that used in Council Regulation (EC) No. 322/97 of 17 February 1997 on Community Statistics but has been enlarged with the working phase of “preparation”
The definition of Dissemination shall make clear, that all access to statistical information not subject to confidentiality restrictions outside the competent authorities when producing statistics is meant. Communication of confidential data is not covered by the term dissemination.
Furthermore, dissemination is irrespective of the means and forms used. Thus it covers publications as well as transfer to single users, it covers paper versions as well as any electronic means. Dissemination has already taken place, when access to a database is possible without an additional authorisation of the competent, even if no factual use has been made. This wide coverage is due to the rules of Statistical Confidentiality, which will be explained in the respective chapter (package) of the Law.
The term Confidential Data refers to data which are destined to be used for statistical purposes, which excludes any use in individual form for decisions concerning the individual statistical units.
Four elements are relevant:
- Destination for statistical use
- Relation to a singular unit (not to a population)
- Possibility to identify the said unit
- Disclosure of any new information not already known as an indispensable element without which an identification would not have been possible.
These elements can be found in Council Regulation 322/97 on Community Statistics.
3Package Planning, programming, implementation measures
Coverage: Articles 3 and 4
Official statistics are deemed to give a picture on the relevant economic, demographic, social and environmental situation and the respective trends in a Country at different geographic levels and to make Countries and regions comparable. To this end, the more information provided, the better. But the possibilities are limited, notably by budgetary and manpower restrictions. Thus a realistic approach between the conflicting interests has to be found with a view to maintain a high degree of “relevance” and “cost-effectiveness” within the dynamic process of development in society which necessitates a mechanism for the implementation of necessary adaptations to changing priorities. This is usually the role of a multi-annual Programme, adopted by the relevant authorities for legislation in the state, where the scope of statistical activities for a certain period of time is described and “stamped” as relevant. The judgement, what is to be recognised as statistically relevant in and for the Country, is a political decision, which is not in the competence of the statisticians who nevertheless will be involved actively in the preparation of the draft Programme. In order to endow statistics with an appropriate reputation of importance, the Programme should be given the status of a parliamentary decision or a very high level governmental decree, depending on the Constitution and the legal system in the country.
The Programme should focus on several years. A period of only one year would not be appropriate as statistics usually monitor situations and developments by repeated production of specific results in certain regular frequencies over a long period. Therefore a decision for specific statistics should also be taken in a multi-annual context.
The multi-annual Programme is a constitutive part of the definition of official statistics. Therefore the Programme has to be laid down in an exhaustive way so that all statistical activities envisaged for the respective period are covered. On the other hand, not all the details for the implementation may be already known when the programme is shaped or new projects may arise, or practical experience may need certain adaptations. Thus exhaustiveness and flexibility have to be brought in line. There are two possible mechanisms:
Some flexibility can be reached by describing the statistical projects and their contents in using more general terms instead of a very concrete and detailed description. The necessary details then can be dedicated to be an implementing measure, decided at lower level than that used for the decision of the Programme, e.g. by the head of the National Statistical Institute after consulting some advisory body.
As concerns projects, which were not foreseen in the programme at all and which thus can not be judged as specifying implementation measure, an update of the programme would be necessary by way of amending or changing the underlying law. Such an adaptation would have to follow the same legislative procedures as the original law on the Programme. The possibility for the legislative authority to change or amend an existing law does not necessarily need to be expressed in the text of the Statistical Law but such an indication could be helpful with a view to increase the transparency of the statistical mechanisms. For this aspect, the “culture” of legislation and its understanding in the Country should be followed.
To this end, the Programme contains a declaration of intend about what is to be done in the respective period and it contains also a limitation to what can be stamped as official statistics within this period.
According to the principle of transparency the basic legal act on statistics needs in addition to that to provide a legal basis for the implementation of the actions foreseen in the Programme. This legal basis has some minimum requirements such as to specify the coverage of statistical units (description of the given population; obligatory or voluntary participation), the type of statistical activity (e. g. sample survey, full coverage census, statistical compilation from pre-existing administrative data…) and the topics of the characteristics, which have to be taken from the relevant sources (see Article 16)
This clarification can be done either in the basic statistical law, or in subsequent statistical legislation, governing a specific statistical action. Some Countries make use of both possibilities by shaping the statistical legislation in such a way, that statistics can be regularly implemented directly on the basis of the statistical law and only some specific actions of outstanding importance, e.g. the population census, are to be executed only on the basis of a specific law. Such a specific law must have a reference to the Statistical Law.
The pattern has used the model of direct implementation without additional legal act.
It should also be taken into consideration to install into the programme link to the budgetary safeguards, where this appears to be necessary according to national practice. It is self evident, that there must be a solid budgetary basis for financing the statistical system, the legal basis of which is to be provided for either in the statistical legislation by specific provisions, e. g. in the context of the statistical Programme, or in general legislation, relating to statistics.
4Package Organisation
Coverage: Articles 5 to 9
This package shall describe the role of the National Statistical Office (Central Statistical Office or Institute – the pattern will use the term “NSO”) and the other authorities, which may participate in the implementation of the Programme, such as the Central Bank, some Ministries or other States authorities.
The NSO should have the leading role in the system, other authorities shall be involved only and to the extent where the work can be better done by these authorities than by the NSO.
There are two reasons behind this philosophy:
The first reason is dictated by the principle of functional separation between the statistical production authorities on one hand and the administration on the other hand. This principle honours the trust of citizen, enterprises, economic actors and whosoever provides individual information to the statistics producer in that this information is only used for statistical purposes and not given to any administrative environment, where the data could be used in order to justify actions and decisions vis-à-vis the individual statistical unit. That trust is extremely difficult to transport to the citizen, when one and the same authority has access to the data, collected for statistical purposes, which is also responsible and competent to use this type of information for individual decisions.
Even though there is no data flow of identifiable individual data from statistics to administration allowed, there is no problem the other way around. Data, collected for administrative purposes may always be used for statistical purposes too. This is not only relevant for the access of the NSO to administrative data sources like registers, it could also justify to endow an administrative body to compile statistics from the information, this body has collected for its own administrative tasks.
The second reason is based on issues of organisation: in a small number of countries with a long tradition, and a common acceptance of the existing statistical organisation based on this tradition (e.g. in France, in the United Kingdom and in the USA), the statistical system is not centralised around a NSO, but decentralised. In a decentralised organisation, the statistical production authorities are not only the NSO but also an important number of statistical services with a similar status to the NSO carrying out their activities around and under the co-ordination of the NSO. The pattern doesn’t recommend this type of organisation for systems that are just changing to market economy because of its only exceptional and historically explained character.
It should be clear that the “other authorities” quoted in the actual draft of the package are not statistical production authorities of this type but just “administrative authorities”.
For the NSO, the principle of functional separation means, that its tasks should be limited to statistical work and not mixed up with administrative competencies.
If nevertheless some administrative tasks correlated with statistical activities, such as administrative directories of enterprises, which serve administrative and statistical purposes, are deemed necessary to be given into the competence of the NSO, it must be made very clear and transparent, which are the rules for those activities, to which extent the Statistical Law is applicable and which measures shall safeguard, that no individual information, given for statistical purposes can flow to the administrative part of the directories. The pattern does not cover this part, as it is a case of exception, the legal provisions of which would have to be organised individually country by country.
The principle of functional separation means furthermore, that a transmission of implementing powers of the statistical Programme to non-statistical authorities has to be limited to the use of data, which are in the possession of the administrative authority regardless of the (additional) statistical competence.
It may be regarded as necessary to organise the national statistical system with the help of regional offices. Regional offices can be structured to be completely or partly in the hierarchy of the NSO. If they are only partly subject to instructions of the NSO, it is important that some minimum competencies stay with the NSO, which comprise the say in methodology, some quality evaluation powers and a safeguard for sufficient and representative dissemination.
To this end, they may be given the right to disseminate the statistical results they achieved at regional level, but as part of the results at state level, a transmission to the NSO for the preparation of the state result is indispensable.
Regional offices should similarly to the NSO perform exclusively statistical tasks.
As there is no homogenous way how if and how to organise regional offices, this aspect is not included into the pattern.
Article 5 stipulates in accordance with the definition of Official Statistics, which are the competent authorities. The rule is, that this is the NSO, unless differently set out in the Programme. The statistics which are to be conducted by other authorities, must be specified in the Programme. Any production of statistics outside the scope of this Article can not have the label “Official Statistics”.
For reasons of clarity and to express that an involvement of administrative authorities in the implementation of the Programme is a case of exception, an express reference to such authorities in the Programme is advisable, whenever they play a role.
The type of public body, in which the NSO is organised, can not be described in the pattern, as this depends completely on the national constitutional and administrative culture. A form should be chosen in practice, which honours the requirements of objectivity and neutrality in an appropriate way. As concerns the head of the office, this function should make visible the importance which is dedicated to statistics and, symbolised in the leading person. Thus a high authorisation body (like the Head of the State, the Head of the Government or the Parliament) should appoint the Head of the NSO and a personality should be chosen only according to the professional skills. This aspect will be emphasised through the need to take the opinion of a neutral forum, like the Statistical Council, into consideration. (see Articles 6 and 7).
It is a usual pattern, that the staff of the office is nominated by head of the NSO, who may be given the title either of “President” or of “Director general” or any other appropriate term (see Article 7).