Reducing the administrative burden in official statistics Presentation to the High Level Group on Independent Stakeholders on Administrative Burdens 22 October 2010 Hannele Orjala Director, Business Trends Department

Outline Finnish Action Plan for reducing administrative burden Operating environment and general preconditions for reducing the response burden in statistics An extensive use of administrative data Enterprise data collection programme of Statistics Finland Measurement of the response burden in statistics Development of respondent relations Conclusions

Statistics Finland 2009 Government organization, founded 1865, located in Helsinki 1,020 employees, 200 statistical interviewers, 876 staff-years 65% of staff hold at least lowest level tertiary or university qualification Total funding EUR 63.5 million, revenue from external financing 19% of funds 200 statistical topics, 650 statistical releases 75 % of Finland’s official statistics comes from SF

3 Finnish Action Plan for the reduction of the administrative burden on businesses The Ministry of Employment and the Economy (MEE) launched the project in August 2008 In March 2009 the Finnish Government approved a decision-in- principle on the Action Plan for The aim is to reduce burden by 25 per cent from the 2006 level by the end of 2012 The Action Plan Covers all the key areas considered as most burdensome by businesses Focuses on measures that alleviate the administrative burden of enterprises Results from the baseline measurement will be finalised in autumn 2010

4 The Action Plan contains eight priority areas + one horizontal priority 1. Taxation 2. Employers’ reporting obligations 3. Financial reporting 4. Public procurement 5. Environmental permit procedures 6. Food safety and quality 7. Statistics 8. Agricultural subsidization procedures Development of electronic communication for businesses is the horizontal priority Development of eGovernment is a key measure to reduce administrative burden in Finland

Statistical regulations of the EU based on THE TREATY ON THE FUNCTIONING OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, article 338 (ex Article 285 TEC) 1. …shall adopt measures for the production of statistics where necessary for the performance of the activities of the Union. 2. The production of Union statistics shall conform to impartiality, reliability, objectivity, scientific independence, cost-effectiveness and statistical confidentiality; it shall not entail excessive burdens on economic operators. REGULATION (EC) No 223/2009 …on European statistics and …on the transmission of data subject to statistical confidentiality to the Statistical Office of the European Communities…

EU legal acts in force relating to Statistics Finland 2001– August 20156

EU legislation and statistics – what can a Member State do? Heavy use of administrative and commercial data (Finland different sources, 96% of input data comes from them) Methodological solutions (editing, imputing, mix-mode sources) Utilization of European Sample Scheme, thresholds, simplications of legislation Influence the legislation in advance, example Statistics on tourism (Council: Working Party on Statistics) ”If a Member State represents less than 1% of the total number of nights spent in the EU, the exemption could apply to establishments with less than 20 bed places.”

8 Operating environment and general preconditions for reducing the response burden YearMilestones in statistics production in Finland – preconditions for reducing the administrative burden 1960sDevelopment of automated data processing systems in public administration 1964Personal Identity number was introduced Foundation of the Business Register and Population Register in Finland 1970sCollaboration between register authorities started 1980sEnterprise ID for all systems in Tax Administration’s ID system, Building/dwelling number in Building and Dwellings Register 1990Register-based Population Census as 2nd country in the world 1994Utilization of value added taxation data was started – monthly data on turnover and wages 2001System of uniform identifiers for businesses in all administrative sources

Finnish Statistics Act (2004): Obliges use of existing data (if suitable) Guarantees access to administrative sources State authorities and social security institutions are obliged to submit their data to Statistics Finland Before deciding on the new data to be collected a statistical authority shall consult with the respondents or their representatives

10 Direct collection vs. utilization of administrative data in statistics on enterprises Business statistics Number of enterprises, direct data collection Administrative data Structural Business Statistics 8,000 (3%)270,000 Business Register25,000 (5%)over 550,000 Short Term Business Statistics Turnover2,000 (1%) 250,000 Wages and salaries 61(<0.001%) 110,000

Administrative burden per country (Source: European Commission 2006)

Development of Business Data Collection at Statistics Finland - Programme Coordinate official statistics Identify and evaluate development needs Support and carry out development projects (e.g. coordination and optimization of samples, Business Register as sampling frame, etc.) Share information and good practices, cooperate Measure response burden of statistics in Finland Participate in the Finnish Action Plan for reducing administrative burden

13 Enterprise data collection programme Objectives Improve and harmonize data collections from enterprises and serve enterprise data suppliers, especially large enterprises Replacement of statistics-specific sample frames with a single frame (Business Register), sample coordination and optimization Standard solutions for serving enterprises and treatment of data in all stages of the enterprise data collection process (feedback, web-services,...) Reduction of data suppliers’ response burden

14 Developing direct data collection ActionBackground/information Data supplier feedbackCompulsory according to the Finnish Statistics Act (2004) Electronic data collection % Electronic response alternative - Xcola in all data collections (2007) Automated data collection in accommodation statistics (2006) Paperless data collection (19 out of 70 economic statistics) Comprehensive information on data collections online Enterprise data collection service u_yrityksille_en.html FIA – fully integrated accounting system Partners with enterprises, Tax Authorities and many other organisations Common web identificationOne common system with other authorities (2011-)

Enterprise data collection service – an example Contains information about the inquiries independent data collection processes Data collection pages, an enterprise can ; find basic information about the inquiries seek guidance for answering inquiries log in to the inquiry / answer via web find links to inquiry results find contact information of statistics check which Statistics Finland’s data collections concern them Statistics Finland

Data collection service Statistics Finland Data collections

16 June Hannele Orjala

Statistics Finland Data collection service

Enterprise data collection service -content Statistics Finland Enterprise data collection service

20 Data direct from hotel management system – XML Web Service – an example Choose month and send the report Choose report to Statistics Finland October

21 Experiences in Finland Trade Magazine for Hotels and Restaurants: “Data reporting is now extremely easy.” Data quality is good Data is coming faster than before, just a few days after the reference period Response burden is almost zero, previously 1-2 hours per month Costs have fallen in terms of working hours, mailing and printing expenses Cooperation with Eurostat (MEETS ESSnet project) and IT enterprises continues, results for all Member States

Response burden (2009) 21% of enterprises received at least one data collection 68% received only one inquiry Burden measurement: Questionnaires in 41 surveys Over 13,500 responses Modification of Standard Cost Model Table. Direct data collections according to size of enterprise *Active enterprise= liable to pay VAT on business operations, and/or employer enterprise or included in the withholding tax register Size category of personnel Number of data collections Percentage of active enterprises* Total Under 10 persons45,0598, ,65716% persons3,2557,9252, ,15591% persons946461, ,738100% Over 249 persons % Total48,42016,9394,4931,38071,23221% %68%24%6%2%100%

Statistics Finland total: Did you find that answering to the inquiry was? – an example of results Statistics Finland

Statistics Finland total : Sources of response burden - an example of results Statistics Finland

Direct business data collections, response burden 2008 Staff-years (Source: Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK) estimation about employees’ average working hours per annum (year 2008), staff-year = total of working hours / ) Statistics Finland 190 staff-years National Board of Customs: Intrastat210 staff-years Costs (Source: Private sector monthly salaries average, year 2008, in Classification of Occupations: Clerks) Statistics Finland’s direct data collectionsEUR 8.3 million National Board of Customs: Intrastat EUR 9.2 million Statistics Finland

26 Structure of cooperation with data providers and enterprises Suppliers and sources of data Keepers of administrative data files Enterprises and corporations Government data administration (JUHTA), sub-division for register providers Appointed coordinator at Statistics Finland for each administrative data provider Regular bilateral meetings at different levels of organizations Liaison group between business sector and Statistics Finland since early 1990s Coordinator and working group for large enterprises Data collection service – feedback, web service Agenda SNA and ESA -ROAD TRAFFIC TRANSPORT STATISTICS -EGR - STS Sales inquiry

27 Conclusions The aim is to achieve high-quality and coherent economic statistics for users and reduce response burden (Strategy of Statistics Finland 2007) Development focus on Direct data collections / automated direct data collecting Services to data providers and (large) enterprises Methodological exploitation of administrative data Reshaping of statistical production process Consistent systems / processes within public sector International cooperation with other statistical offices Tools Programme for the development of data collections from enterprises and the Finnish Action Plan for reduction of administrative burden Cooperation with data providers and respondents

28 Thank you for your attention! Hannele Orjala Director, Business Trends Department Statistics Finland