1. Heinrich Brüngger, Director
What do the UN Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics imply for the correct use of administrative data in official statistics?
Heinrich Brüngger, Director

2. Paper presented at the IAOS Conference on Reshaping Official Statistics Session 29: Independency and ethical issues after the reshaping and use of smart data
Shanghai, 14 to 16 October 2008

3. Administrative data: definition
Data collected by a public authority (or by another body on behalf of a public authority) for purposes related to their executive or juridical actions about individual natural or legal persons, such as authorisations, permits, payments, sanctions, control etc.
Primary data collection has to be based on other legal basis than statistical legislation
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4. Secondary use of administrative data for statistical purposes: legal implications
Use of administrative data means bringing copies of data sets with individual data from a legal framework regulating the specific administrative use to a legal framework that is specific for official statistics
Once in the domain of official statistics, the legal constraints from the administrative use (such as ban on changing data or deleting units) cease to be applicable, and the provisions of the statistical legislation (concerning processing and dissemination) start to become applicable
The umbrella provisions (relevant for public authorities) in a general data protection law remain fully applicable for both legal environments
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5. FP 5: Data sources for official statistics
« Data for statistical purposes may be drawn from all types of sources, be they statistical surveys or administrative records. Statistical agencies are to choose the source with regard to quality, timeliness, costs and the burden on respondents »
Has to be explicitly included in the statistical law (and possibly in the data protection law) in such a way that it can override access barriers that may be included in the legislation for the administrative use.
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6. FP 5 (continued)
Additional use for statistical purposes is no additional interference with rights of individuals
Quality: because designed primarily for administrative purposes, coverage, concepts, definitions and classifications may not be fully satisfactory, therefore need for adjustment, editing and matching with other sources at micro and/or macro level
Quality: because of exhaustiveness, more disaggregations (e.g. regional) possible compared to sample surveys
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7. FP 5 (continued)
Timeliness: depends on the complexity of the administrative system (normally better for centralised than for decentralised administrative systems)
Periodicity: if administrative data are continually updated, they offer the potential of a higher frequency of statistical outputs compared to large or exhaustive statistical surveys (censuses)
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8. FP 5 (continued)
Cost: additional cost for statistical system lower compared to statistical surveys, especially to exhaustive surveys such as censuses; however, cost is not zero
Burden on respondents: no (or only small) additional burden for respondents. Use of administrative data is a key strategy to reduce burden on respondents caused by statistical surveys
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9. FP 6: Confidentiality
« Individual data collected by statistical agencies for statistical compilation, whether they refer to natural or legal persons, are to be strictly confidential and used exclusively for statistical purposes »
The term « collected » in FP 6 refers to all sources mentioned in FP 5, i.e. it includes also administrative data once they are in the legislative framework of official statistics
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10. FP 6 (continued)
One-way principle: once under the legal umbrella of official statistics, data subject to confidentiality obtained from administrative sources should never be given back to the other legal environment or handed out for non-statistical use.
This principle is also applicable to statistical registers of respondent units maintained by statistical agencies. Therefore, a clear distinction between registers for administrative purposes and statistical registers (with exclusive use for statistical purposes) has to be made
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11. Other FPs
Other FPs such as transparency, professional independence and impartiality in dissemination (and the relevant provisions in a statistical law that address these principles) apply to all official statistics activities, whether based on surveys or administrative sources or a combination of both sources
All FPs apply to official statistics activities based partially or totally on administrative data whether carried out by the NSO or by another producer of official statistics at national level
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12. Risks of using administrative data for official statistics
Changes in the administrative source that cause breaks in series, the deletion of characteristics important for statistical use, or a loss in quality components
Administrative sources may disappear completely (deregulation)
Important for NSOs to be consulted in time, to follow legislative work related to such sources, and to maintain regular contacts with all agencies in charge of collecting data for administrative purposes that are relevant for statistics (NSOs should never collect or process data for administrative purposes themselves)
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13. Potential of administrative data for official statistics
The availability of well kept administrative sources is a key success factor for an efficient statistical system (Nordic countries)
However, quality control and quality management is as necessary for statistics based on administrative source as it is for statistical surveys
Very often, the best quality can be obtained by a judicious combination of various sources (administrative and/or statistical)
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14. Summary
For the effective use of administrative data in official statistics, it is necessary to have a clearly defined legal space for official statistics (statistical legislation) that addresses the access to and use of administrative data and regulates the interface between the administrative and statistical legal environments
Official statistics agencies must have the right to alter, modify and match administrative data to bring them better in line with statistical concepts and classifications
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15. Summary (continued)
Because of these adaptations, official statistics based on administrative data is something very different from simply adding up administrative activities
Quality management in official statistics should cover all production activities, whatever the origin of source data
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