Official Statistics 4.0: The Era of Digitisation and Globalisation
4.5 Governance 4.0—Preparing for New Opportunities and Risks
4.5.5 Five Pillars of Statistical Governance
In this section, a checklist of points reflects the main aspects of relevance to the gov- ernance of official statistics. The extent to which these issues manifest themselves in legal provisions or in other types of commitments (political decisions, standards, guidelines, etc.) depends on the particular context (for example, national adminis- trative practice); therefore, these points cannot be generalised as a model solution to this puzzle. However, experience in European statistics over the past years has shown that the points in this checklist are those that collectively determine a type of solution space. Moreover, it is important not to approach the topic with the idea that simply a regulation on paper would be sufficient.
It should be considered from the very start how governance could be put into practice, what safeguards should be built in, what learning processes are foreseen, etc.
4.5.5.1 Who: Actors and Roles—Pillar One
The producers and stakeholders of official statistics participate in the process of design, information gathering and communication in different ways. Analysing their roles and functions and defining their rights and duties are the tasks of governance rules.
Producers
• Central importance in the governance belongs to the position/person at the top level of official statistics. The relevant functions and roles may possibly be merged within one position/person or may be separated by means of unmistakable mandates.
– Statistical authority: political responsibility and accountability, setting of sta- tistical standards and quality standards, responsibility for the programme and budget
– Director-General/President: executive responsibility for the production and communication process and for the institution of the Statistical Office, thus in charge of allocation of the budget and of all questions concerning staff – Chief Statistician: coordinator of the (national) statistical system, responsibil-
ity and administrative competence to overcome resistance/reluctance by other manufacturers in the system.
• Above all, however, the question arises as to where the statistical leader is placed in the political ecosystem in terms of reputation, salary, official rank, title, direct access to the political level, etc. Likewise, the way in which recruitment and, if necessary, the dismissal of duties are regulated plays an essential role for the per- son/position of the President of the Statistical Office; the EU Statistics Regulation 223 lays down specific criteria for this (European Union2015).
• A statistical system is composed of a broad set of collaborating partners with a differentiated set of tasks and responsibilities, which need to be addressed by well-balanced governance rules:
– National producers of official statistics: national statistical system, degree of autonomy and delegated ‘authority’, role of official statistics of central banks – Science: nature and intensity of cooperation, access to aggregated and micro-
data
– Data producers: nature and intensity of cooperation, access to aggregated and micro-data
– Media: nature and intensity of cooperation, access to aggregated and micro-data.
Interest groups, stakeholders
• Respondents: rights and obligations
– Statistical confidentiality, privacy of information – (Legal) obligation to respond; a double-edged sword
– Priority for use of existing information versus survey.
• Users
– Information needs, administrative and communicative processes – User classification
– Access to statistical information and statistical (micro) data: subject to user classification
– Civil society—advocacy role
– Science, access to anonymised data, improvement of ‘statistical literacy’
– Media, new forms of communication, simultaneous access to timely/market- relevant indicators
– Political participation, decision and control.
Institutions and their role in governance—participation, decision, control
• Parliament: ultimate client and addressee of official statistics products and services, legislator for statistical legal standards, programme and budget
• Statistical supervisory bodies and user committees: function to be specified in the main processes (see ‘What’) of official statistics
• Government: administrative responsibility in terms of budget, staff, organisation, etc., legislative initiative, essential user
• Audit authorities (e.g. audit offices): audit of the orderliness and efficiency of production processes
• Courts: case law regarding the application of statistical law
• Civil society: ‘watchdog’ and participating in design and communication processes as actively as possible.
4.5.5.2 What: Statistical Programme and Products, Services—Pillar Two
For the public information infrastructure provided by official statistics, it is of great importance that the range of products and services reflect both value for taxpayer money and the general information needs of society. The job of the statistics services and the budget that they receive for it must fit together.
• Design of statistical methods, products and programme, including stakeholder participation
• Planning cycles, administrative roles and responsibilities, development and negotiation of programme and budget
• Decision (binding definition), different levels of standardisation with appropriate democratic participation
• Accountability, transparency and control of execution and achievement of pro- gramme and budget.
4.5.5.3 How: Quality Assurance—Pillar Three
The quality of statistical information depends on how it is produced. Comprehensive quality management should not only ensure compliance with a high-quality standard, but also communicate transparently and certify comprehensibly.
• Institutional, administrative and legal rules prefer modern, efficient and innovative statistics production
• Institutional, administrative and legal rules give the Director General the neces- sary freedom of operation concerning the management of the statistical institution (staff, organisation, finances, technical infrastructure, etc.)
• Ethical codes, good governance principles
• State-of-the-art scientific approach and standards at all levels
• Cooperation with and reviews by peers/counterparts in the statistical community
• Efficiency criteria, also for cooperation between statistics producers
• Quality management.
– Quality management methods, e.g. from European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM)
– Quality control, proportional to the policy impact of statistics (e.g. financial statistics, public debt indicators)
– Reporting on quality (e.g. quality reports after completion of a survey, as provided for in legal standards, Commitment on Confidence in the European Statistical System ESS)
– Communication of quality assurance, branding (for example quality declaration by the ESS), labelling of quality profiles for statistical products.
4.5.5.4 Confidentiality, Data Ownership, Access to Data—Pillar Four In the information society, data has great economic value. As a result, ownership issues, rights of use and obligations to provide or keep confidential information are of paramount importance to informational governance. With new developments in the field of public administration, new tasks in data management will be created and competencies and responsibilities will have to be regulated. Official statistics have a lot to offer for these new tasks. However, administrative and statistical work areas must be separated from each other in such a way that confidentiality of the statistical micro-data is ensured. Implementing shared EU rules on access to data from non- public sources for statistical purposes will allow the ESS to play its role successfully in current and future difficult times.
• Legal basis for collection or (re-)use of individual data
• Statistical confidentiality and general data protection,43 ensuring consistency between two legal concepts; principles and guidelines concerning statistical confidentiality and data protection
• Role and function of official statistics’ role in the data economy and data space,44 access to (public) statistical data (government-to-business [G2B]), sharing private sector data (business-to-government [B2G])45
• Special legal provisions for the relationship between administrative and statistical registers, especially if both are operated by official statistics services
• Special legal provisions for data linkage by statistical institutions.46
4.5.5.5 International Cooperation and Relations, Standards, Governance—Pillar Five
With increasing cooperation between the statistical authorities of different states, especially within the framework of European statistics, cross-border regulations, supranational and international agreements are becoming increasingly important.
The difficult negotiations over the past few years for the exchange of confidential data as part of the reform of intra-trade47statistics are one of many examples. Many factors have to be balanced in such regulations: the change in the political framework conditions, and in particular further developments of the political governance of the EU, must be considered.
• European statistics: In recent years, a wide range of rules have been laid down, through which the official statistics of the Member States have been integrated into the network of partnership relations with each other and with Eurostat in a statutory system. At the moment, it is completely unclear in which direction the European project will develop. But as the example of the UK’s exit (‘Brexit’) demonstrates, one thing is clear: any form of Europe needs solid statistics, even in the preparation and discussion of possible political alternatives. Providing adequate governance as an institutional framework is an urgent task to be undertaken along this path.
• UN, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE): As an example, reference
43For data protection in the EU seehttps://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/data- protection-eu_en.
44EU policy: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/policies/building-european-data- economy.
45Synopsis report of the public consultation on the revision of the Directive on the reuse of pub- lic sector information https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/synopsis-report-public- consultation-revision-directive-reuse-public-sector-information.
46See the report ‘Joining up Data for Better Statistics’ by the UK Statistics Authority (Office for Statistics Regulation2018).
47See the SIMSTAT approach in the revised regulation for EU business statistics (Eurostat2015b).
should be made to global cooperation in the development of sustainability indica- tors, which does not only touch on statistical–methodological problems, but also on the distribution of roles, responsibilities and other governance issues.
• International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and UN agencies: As a rule, these areas will be more concerned with the technical aspects of individual statistical areas. Nevertheless, issues of cooperation, data flows, etc. usually play a role.