Page 309 - Special Topic Session (STS) - Volume 2

STS496 Roeland B.
official statistics system is part of the executive branch of government, with a
reporting line to a minister. In some countries however, the statistical system
reports to parliament; for example the UK Statistics Authority reports to a
Statistics Board which is independent from the executive branch, and which
reports to a parliamentary committee (see Laux, Alldritt and Young, 2008).
There is some considerable debate within the statistics community as to
what the ideal model is in order to meet the principle of official statistics being
a public good. Mostly these debates focus of the core issue of professional
independence, and how it can be guaranteed. Georgiou (2018) argues that "in
order to fully and sustainably meet the standards of professional
independence, impartiality and objectivity of producers of official statistics, the
production of such statistics should not be part of the executive branch of
government – or any other branch of government – but a separate branch."
However, Tavernier (2018) argues that the presence of a statistical system
within the executive branch of government does not inhibit an independent
functioning or the production of statistics which serve the public good. He lists
a number of advantages of the presence of the INSEE (and others statistics
producers) within the executive branch in France, for example easier access to
ministers and decision-makers who decide on funding for statistics, and the
ease of making sure the statistics are relevant to and sensitive to policy needs.
It is clear there is no single right answer to these debates, and other issues
will be of importance in determining the ideal setup, for example:
 the political culture
 the maturity of a particular democratic system
 the strength of the official statistics system itself
 the presence of a strong wider ecosystem around statistics
These factors will to some extent help determine the ideal model for the
setup of the official statistics system within a specific country setting. However,
it is clear the three conditions discussed in the previous section (professional
independence, adequate funding and a mandate for data access) are key in
the considerations for establishing an efficient statistical governance model.

References
1. Beerten, R. (2017) Trustworthy numbers for a strong democracy. A
strategy for Flemish official statistics. Statistics Flanders.
2. Bumpstead, R, and Alldritt, R. (2011) Statistics for the People? The role of
official statistics in the democratic debate. Paper for the 58th World
Congress of the International Statistical Institute, Dublin, 21-26th August
2011.
3. Eurostat (2017) European Statistics Code of Practice for the national and
Community statistical authorities
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-catalogues/-/KS-02-18-142

298 | I S I W S C 2 0 1 9