Heinrich Brüngger Statistical Division UNECE

1. The importance of a good legal framework for the coordination function of statistical business registers Heinrich Brüngger Statistical Division UNECE

2. Joint UNECE/EUROSTAT/OECD Meeting of Experts on Business Registers Geneva, 18-19 June 2007

3. Statistical business register • You cannot have good business or even economic statistics without a reliable statistical business register that is regularly updated (different from social statistics) • All decisions concerning the inclusion and characteristics of individual economic units have to be made exclusively on statistical grounds (therefore statistical business register as opposed to administrative registers)

4. Coordination functions • Unique sampling frame for business surveys in official statistics (not only in NSO, but also by other producers where relevant) • Correction of coverage for raw data from administrative sources • Harmonising activity codes for same unit in all statistical files (whether from surveys or administrative sources)

5. Coordination functions (ctd.) • Matching of files from different sources at unit level for statistical purposes • Monitoring the burden of individual units or groups of units such as SME

6. SBR and other unit-level statistical files • Both are exclusively for statistical use • Consequences: • SBR cannot be public • Access to SBR has to be limited to selected staff within the statistical system (if statisticians from outside the NSO have access, institutional guarantees for the exclusively statistical use have to be present)

7. SBR and other unit-level statistical files (ctd.) • SBR is different by: • Having direct identifiers permanently associated with content variables • Being used not only for building aggregate statistical information, but also for identification (and monitoring) of individual respondents within the umbrella of official statistics • Right of inspection by units concerned being applicable (should not extend to right of correction)

8. Requirements for legal framework • Definition of statistical use or purpose should be sufficiently wide so as to allow use for preparing statistical data collection and matching of files • Depending on provisions in statistical law and data protection laws, special features of the SBR ask for specific articles on the SBR in the law itself

9. Requirements for legal framework (ctd.) • Right of access to administrative files for statistical purposes should not exclude the transmission of identifiers (not only for SBR)

10. Activity codes • The classification of economic activities may be used beyond official statistics, i.e. directly in administrative files • NSO staff may train staff from administrative data holders about using the economic activity classification • However, they cannot forward activity codes about individual economic units from the SBR for administrative use

11. One-way principle • Data flows between SBR and administrative sources used for updating the SBR have to strictly follow the one-way principle, because SBR: • May contain information from statistical surveys collected with the pledge of exclusive statistical use • May have modified, because of statistical concepts, data obtained from administrative or even public sources

12. Conflict of interest • The NSO as responsible agency for the SBR should not be at the same time in charge of tasks that are in conflict with the 6th principle (exclusively statistical use), e.g. being in charge of or having to provide information for administrative business registers • Transition from being in charge of the administrative business register to being in charge of the SBR without the former is a particularly difficult process in transition countries