Official Statistics—Public Informational Infrastructure
2.3 Quality in Official Statistics
2.3.3 Code of Practice
In European statistics, in this regard, one has agreed upon a structure—one could also say classification—further elaborated18and manifested in the Code of Practice (Eurostat2011):
The European Statistics Code of Practice sets out 15 key principles for the production and dissemination of European official statistics and the institutional environment under which national and Community statistical authorities operate. A set of indicators of good practice for each of the 15 principles provides a reference for reviewing the implementation of the Code.
The European Statistics Code of Practice was adopted by the Statistical Pro- gramme Committee in 2005 and was revised by the European Statistical System Committee in September 2011 and 2017 (Eurostat2018b) (Fig.2.12).
Fig. 2.12 European Statistics Code of Practice
18EU Regulation 223: “The statistical principles set out in this paragraph are further elaborated in the Code of Practice” (European Union2015: Art 12).
ES Code of Practice:
• Institutional environment
– Institutional and organisational factors have a significant influence on the effectiveness and creditability of a statistical authority developing, producing and disseminating European Statistics. The relevant issues are professional independence, mandate for data collection, adequacy of resources, quality commitment, statistical confidentiality, impartiality and objectivity.
• Statistical processes
– European and other international standards, guidelines and good practices are fully observed in the processes used by the statistical authorities to organise, collect, pro- cess and disseminate European Statistics. The credibility of the statistics is enhanced by a reputation for good management and efficiency. The relevant aspects are sound methodology, appropriate statistical procedures, non-excessive burden on respondents and cost effectiveness.
• Statistical output
– Available statistics meet users’ needs. Statistics comply with the European quality stan- dards and serve the needs of European institutions, governments, research institutions, business concerns and the public generally. The important issues concern the extent to which the statistics are relevant, accurate and reliable, timely, coherent, comparable across regions and countries, and readily accessible by users.
This short summary makes it clear that the quality concept follows the three dimensions that were already introduced at the beginning: Who? (Institutions), How?
(Processes) and What? (Products). Like the Code of Practice itself, the way it is implemented is significantly inspired by the methods of Total Quality Manage- ment (TQM). This is mainly reflected in the Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) (Eurostat2018d).
Box 2.1 Quality criteria for European statistics19
Institutional environment Statistical processes Statistical output 1. Professional independence
1bis. Coordination and cooperation
2. Mandate for data collection 3. Adequacy of resources 4. Commitment to quality 5. Statistical confidentiality 6. Impartiality and objectivity
7. Sound methodology 8. Appropriate statistical procedures
9. Non-excessive burden on respondents
10. Cost effectiveness
11. Relevance
12. Accuracy and reliability 13. Timeliness and punctuality 14. Coherence and comparability
15. Accessibility and clarity
It is essential to the success of quality management that the governance (the
‘who?’) is thoroughly thought through and implemented in a timely manner. With the Code of Practice, e.g., in Europe, the committees of statistics are being reformed.
19The 2017 edition of the CoP is based on 16 principles.
Among other things, a supervisory board (European Governance Advisory Board20) was established. In addition, peer reviews21for the producers of European statistics were carried out at longer intervals.
For the part of European statistics produced by the ECB and the national central banks, a similar quality framework is in place (ECB2018).
The existence of codes of conduct in official statistics is still comparatively new, introduced in the past three decades. First, ethical standards for the professional statistician were adopted by the International Statistical Institute (ISI) in 1985 (ISI 2018); in 2010, the declaration of professional ethics followed (ISI2010).
Box 2.2 ISI Professional Ethics22
“Our shared professional values are respect, professionalism, truthfulness and integrity.”
Ethical Principles
• Statisticians should pursueobjectivitywithout fear or favor, only selecting and using methods designed to produce the most accurate results. …
• Clarifying Obligations and Roles: … statisticians should take care to stay within their area of competence, and seek advice, as appropriate, from others with the relevant expertise.
• Assessing Alternatives Impartially:Available methods and procedures should be considered and an impartial assessment provided to the employer, client, or funder of the respective merits and limitations of alternatives, along with the proposed method.
• Conflicting Interests: Statisticians avoid assignments where they have a financial or personal conflict of interest in the outcome of the work. …
• Avoiding Preempted Outcomes: Any attempt to establish a predetermined outcome from a proposed statistical inquiry should be rejected, …
• GuardingPrivileged Information: Privileged information is to be kept confiden- tial. This prohibition is not to be extended to statistical methods and procedures utilized to conduct the inquiry or produce published data.
• ExhibitingProfessional Competence: Statisticians shall seek to upgrade their professional knowledge and skills, …
• MaintainingConfidence in Statistics: In order to promote and preserve the con- fidence of the public, statisticians should ensure that they accurately and correctly describe their results, including the explanatory power of their data. …
• Exposing and Reviewing Methods and Findings: Adequate information should be provided to the public to permit the methods, procedures, techniques, and findings to be assessed independently.
20See ESGAB (2018).
21See Eurostat (2018c).
22ISI (2010).
• Communicating Ethical Principles: In collaborating with colleagues and others in the same or other disciplines, it is necessary and important to ensure that the ethical principles of all participants are clear, understood, respected, and reflected in the undertaking.
• BearingResponsibility for the Integrity of the Discipline: Statisticians are sub- ject to the general moral rules of scientific and scholarly conduct: they should not deceive or knowingly misrepresent or attempt to prevent reporting of misconduct or obstruct the scientific/scholarly research of others.
• Protecting theInterests of Subjects: Statisticians are obligated to protect subjects, individually and collectively, insofar as possible, against potentially harmful effects of participating. ….
The need for a set of principles governing official statistics became apparent at the end of the 1980s when countries in Central Europe began to change from centrally planned economies to market-oriented democracies. It was essential to ensure that national statistical systems in such countries would be able to produce appropriate and reliable data that adhered to certain professional and scientific standards. Towards this end, the Conference of European Statisticians developed and adopted the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics in 1991
… a milestone in the history of international statistics was reached when the United Nations Statistical Commission at its Special Session of 11–15 April 1994 adopted the very same set of principles – with a revised preamble – as the United Nations Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics. (UNSD2018)
The current version of the UN Fundamental Principles (see Box2.3) was endorsed by the UN General Assembly in its resolution 68/261 of 29 January 2014 (United Nations2014).
Box 2.3 UN Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics23
• Principle 1. Official statistics provide an indispensable element in the informa- tion system of a democratic society, serving the Government, the economy and the public with data about the economic, demographic, social and environmental situation. To this end, official statistics that meet the test of practical utility are to be compiled and made available on an impartial basis by official statistical agencies to honour citizens’ entitlement to public information.
• Principle 2. To retain trust in official statistics, the statistical agencies need to decide according to strictly professional considerations, including scientific prin- ciples and professional ethics, on the methods and procedures for the collection, processing, storage and presentation of statistical data.
• Principle 3. To facilitate a correct interpretation of the data, the statistical agencies are to present information according to scientific standards on the sources, methods and procedures of the statistics.
• Principle 4. The statistical agencies are entitled to comment on erroneous interpretation and misuse of statistics.
23Source United Nations (2014).
• Principle 5. Data for statistical purposes may be drawn from all types of sources, be they statistical surveys or administrative records. Statistical agencies are to choose the source with regard to quality, timeliness, costs and the burden on respondents.
• Principle 6. Individual data collected by statistical agencies for statistical compi- lation, whether they refer to natural or legal persons, are to be strictly confidential and used exclusively for statistical purposes.
• Principle 7. The laws, regulations and measures under which the statistical systems operate are to be made public.
• Principle 8. Coordination among statistical agencies within countries is essential to achieve consistency and efficiency in the statistical system.
• Principle 9. The use by statistical agencies in each country of international con- cepts, classifications and methods promotes the consistency and efficiency of statistical systems at all official levels.
• Principle 10. Bilateral and multilateral cooperation in statistics contributes to the improvement of systems of official statistics in all countries.