Page 306 - Special Topic Session (STS) - Volume 2

STS496 Roeland B.
From this list it is clear some of the conditions are controlled by – and are
thus the responsibility of - the institutional framework of government, but
other conditions are rather characteristics of the official statistics system itself,
and so are the responsibility of the official statistics system. The table below
1
splits out the conditions between the two types of actors :

Table 1 – Institutional context factors by type of actor

Institutional framework Official statistics system
Professional independence Coordination and cooperation

Adequate resources Quality

Mandate for data collection Confidentiality
Impartiality and objectivity

In what follows we will discuss the conditions of the institutional framework
in some more detail; for the purpose of this paper we will not cover the
dimensions which are largely the responsibility of the official statistics system.
Of course this is not to say they are not important in supporting and shaping
the democratic debate (see Bumpstead and Alldritt (2011) for a good
discussion on relevant conditions which are largely within control of the
statistics system itself, such as such as utility, accessibility and relevance).

2.1 Professional independence
A key condition for earning credible official statistics which meet the
criteria for being a public good is the fact that they are produced in a
professionally independent manner. Citizens should be able to have
confidence in impartial figures that do not result from a political ideology, or
from too close a connection with the policy that needs to be justified to the
public. Moreover, even if there is no actual political interference with the
production or dissemination of statistics, the perception of independence of
the official statistics system should be strongly guaranteed. The
trustworthiness of our official statistics is of a fragile nature and it can be easily
jeopardised as a result of negative perceptions.
The principle of professional independence of official statistics is explicitly
recognised by the international political community, although the principle is

1 The proposed split of responsibilities between the two types of actors is, of course, not
entirely clear-cut, and it should be recognised some of the responsibilities will to some extent
be shared between the two.

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