12.9 Statistical policies, standards and guidelines#
The final aspect of the statistical infrastructure discussed in this chapter comprises statistical policies, standards and guidelines, defined as follows:
Policy –strategic direction or course of action defined, adopted and promulgated by the NSO;
Standard: set of standard concepts or variables, standard classifications, or standard method that underpins harmonisation and/or integration and that typically supports the implementation of policies;
Guideline: a recommendation and/or element of best practice that typically supports the implementation of a policy or standard; usually used in the plural, referring to a set of guidelines on a particular topic.
12.9.1 Statistical policies#
Whilst a principle is a statement of commitment (possibly a rule) that is to be followed, a policy defines a course of action that can be used to implement the principle. Thus, an NSO may adopt the Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics, and put in place one or more policies, such as a dissemination policy, to ensure that they are followed. This section focuses on national statistical policies, which are most commonly used to elaborate and provide strategic directions for implementing the principles or rules defined in legal documents and international recommendations.
Policies should be like the foundation of a building - built to last, and resistant to change and erosion. Policies should be easily accessible and understood. Policies are usually developed to provide a sense of direction in a strategically important area. They should be created to be in force for a long period and at the same time periodically reviewed to assess their relevance.
Policies may be divided into three types: organization-wide; issue-specific; and system-specific.
Commonly NSOs have policies for dissemination, revision, data access, microdata access, archiving, privacy, pricing for tailored statistical services among many others.
Recommendations on how to organize the development, monitoring and enforcement of policies is provided in Chapter 6.4.2 — Internal advisory and decision-making bodies. One general recommendation is that policies should be created through a designated internal decision-making body (such as a committee or a working group), reviewed by senior experts and management, and endorsed by the chief statistician.
Senior management should give special attention to policy enforcement, continually reminding the staff of the importance of a policy and why it was adopted. Policy performance monitoring should be continuous activity as ad hoc performance monitoring can create unreliable results.
Enforcement of statistical policies may be organized globally, for example through the Global Review of the Implementation of the Fundamental Principles of Official statistics (🔗), or regionally for example through the Peer Review on the implementation of the European Statistics Code of Practice (🔗) in the EU and candidate countries.
Statistical policy governance should involve eight characteristics: the rule of law; transparency; responsiveness; consensus-oriented; equity and inclusiveness; effectiveness and efficiency; accountability; and participation.
An example of good practice for statistical policy creation can be found in the UK Government Statistical Service (GSS) document.
Governance for statistical policies, standards and guidance statistical system (🔗), which summarises the process for creating, updating and agreeing on all GSS. Policies, standards, guidance and strategies. All GSS policies are made available on the GSS Policy and Guidance Hub, which has the following objectives:
helping people to find what they are looking for;
increasing awareness of existing policy;
preventing use of out-of-date policy;
avoiding unnecessary new policies / reinventing the wheel; and
identifying gaps in policy areas.
In the Philippines Statistical Authority (PSA), interagency committees on statistics (IACs) are established to serve as fora for the exchange of views and expertise:
to resolve technical issues and problems arising from the production, dissemination, and use of statistics, among others and;
in the development, maintenance and compliance to statistical standards and classification systems.
Statistical issues that are unresolved at the IAC level are elevated to the PSA Board, the country’s highest policymaking body on statistical matters, for decision. Policies issued by the PSA Board are then implemented by all concerned agencies.
12.9.2 Standard concepts, variables and classifications#
Today’s world requires comparable statistics. Political unions, customs unions, free trade areas, and the global character of foreign investment require that statistics (and particularly socio-economic statistics) are expressed in the same language. The objective of harmonising statistics is to make it possible to combine or compare data collected for different populations, for different periods and/or by different data collection methods for different statistical units. This is possible by using the same or mutually consistent and harmonized standards and classifications across different data sets.
A failure to use internationally comparable standards is a weakness in an NSO. For effective coordination of classifications, nomenclatures and concepts, a designated organizational unit must be in charge of ensuring that what is adopted nationally is comparable with that adopted by other countries.
International comparisons are possible largely due to international classifications and standard accounting systems such as the System of National Accounts (SNA) or System of Environmental Accounts (SEA). In efforts to increase comparability, the statistical community is also developing standards such as GSBPM, GSIM, and CSPA (described in Chapter 15.4 — Use of standards and generic models in an NSO) aimed at standardising the statistical production and its documentation.
Classifications group and organize information meaningfully and systematically into a standard format that is useful for determining the similarity of ideas, events, objects, or persons. The preparation of a classification means creating an exhaustive and structured set of mutually exclusive and well-described categories, often presented as a hierarchy reflected by the numeric or alphabetical codes assigned to them.
International statistical classifications (ISCs) are products of international agreements among national authorities responsible for statistics in the respective areas. In accordance with the established practice for the division of responsibilities among international agencies in the area of statistics, the ISCs require approval by the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) or another competent intergovernmental board, such as that of the World Customs Organization (WCO), the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), or the International Labour Organization (ILO), depending on the subject matter area. ISCs may serve as models for the development of corresponding national, multinational and regional statistical classifications, and should, as far as possible, reflect what is considered “best practice” in the areas they cover.
Even though international standardisation of variables was not until recently seen as a priority, standardisation of data and metadata has been promoted through international organizations such as the IMF and the World Bank, the OECD and the EU. All of them accept data in their databases through XML and require standardised variables and metadata. This simplifies the use of data and makes data integration easier.
Within the European Statistical System (ESS), an ESS standard is defined as a normative document, established by consensus among ESS members and approved by a recognised body for ESS standardisation, that provides common and repeated use by several actors in the ESS. It can comprise rules, guidelines or characteristics for the development, production and dissemination of European Statistics, aimed at achieving the optimum implementation of the mission and vision of the ESS.
Adapting the statistical classifications to local circumstances and conditions and promoting their use among public and government agencies is an important task for every NSO.
Catalogue of ESS Standards (🔗);
Standard Statistical Classifications: Basic Principles (🔗);
Definitions, data sources and methods – Statistics Canada (🔗);
Best Practice Guidelines for Developing International Statistical Classifications -, Expert Group on International Statistical Classifications (🔗).
12.9.3 Statistical guidelines#
In the world of official statistics, guidelines are used to document the best current practices and processes and explore and promote the new developments.
Even though guidelines are, by nature, open to interpretation and do not need to be followed to the letter, they are worth developing, promoting and considering.
Guidelines cover every statistical area and domain. They provide a basis for training and support. When a new employee is introduced to an NSO, he/she can be given a copy of pertinent guidelines as a starting point. He/she may be asked to follow the work of more senior colleagues and write down observations and questions with reference to the guidelines. Since the guidelines are usually written following the statistical production process from the start to the end, they can be used as supporting tools to troubleshoot errors in streamlining and improving existing processes.
Creating guidelines in an NSO is somewhat similar to creating an internal policy as referenced above. Guidelines should be created through a working group or committee of experts, then commented on by internal decision-making body (such as a Committee or a working group), then reviewed by senior experts and management and finally endorsed by the chief statistician. In the case of guidelines being developed by an international organization, the final approval is by a commission or another competent intergovernmental body.
As international guidelines are often not mandatory, compliance is in general, monitored and not audited. International organizations often monitor compliance with international guidelines, for example, for EU and OECD applicant countries during the accession process.