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Quality in the INE and Code of Practice
Quality in the INE
Over the last few decades, the INE has made many efforts both in terms of management and quality control of its products, with the aim of maintaining the high degree of confidence from which the official statistical information is currently profiting.
Through this section of the website, the INE provides users with information on quality practices, and the way in which it tries to continually adapt to the new challenges and needs that society demands.
Within its planning schemes, INE has a quality management strategy based on the Common Quality Framework of the European Union, as well as on the United Nations Fundamental Principles of Official Statitics and the ISI's Declaration on Professional Ethics. This strategy is embodied in:
1) Quality guidelines integrated into the mission and vision of the INE.
2) The definition of a system of quality management of the INE, established by a set of rules and instruments, and an organizational structure which monitors and coordinates its application.
The quality management strategy and actions of the INE follow the principles of the European Statistics Code of Practices.
European Statistics Code of Practice (CoP)
The European Statistics Code of Practice (CoP) sets the standard for developing, producing and disseminating European statistics. The CoP sets out 16 key principles for the production and dissemination of European official statistics and the institutional environment under which national and Community statistical authorities operate. A set of indicators of good practice for each of the 16 principles provides a reference for reviewing the implementation of the Code.
- - To set the standard for the development, production and dissemination of European statistics. It is based on a definition of quality of statistics common to the entire European Statistical System (ESS) and that affects all areas from the institutional environment, to the statistical production processes, and to the statistical products.
- - To ensure the quality and credibility of the data. The principles refer, among other aspects, to professional independence, protection of confidentiality, reliability of results, their accuracy, timeliness, punctuality, accessibility, clarity, comparability and coherence.
The European Statistics Code of Practice was first adopted in 2005 and it was revised by the European Statistical System Committee (ESSC) in 2011 and 2017; the ESSC endorsed the latter revision on 16 November 2017.
The main novelties introduced in the November 2017 review are: on the one hand, an additional principle has been introduced, dedicated to Coordination and cooperation in statistical systems; on the other hand, greater importance is given to alternative statistical sources to the surveys, such as administrative sources or new sources of information from the digital revolution; a third area has been the inclusion of new developments coming from the modernisation of the legal framework.
The Common Quality Framework for European Statistics
The CBPEE is one of the pillars of the Common Quality Framework for European Statistics, along with:
- - The ESS Quality Assurance Framework (ESS QAF). It is a support and complement to the Code of Practice, providing a set of methods, tools and activities for the implementation of the Code. The most recent version (QAF 2.0) was published in 2019.
- - The general principles of quality management (such as permanent interaction with users, leadership commitment, cooperation agreements, staff satisfaction, continuous improvement, integration and harmonization).
This common self-regulatory quality framework for statistics is supported by a strong legal framework, based on Regulation (EC) 223/2009 on European Statistics.
An additional element, which proves the voluntary commitment of all EU members to the permanent development, production and dissemination of high quality statistics, is the so-called Declaration on the Quality of the European Statistical System, jointly drawn up and signed by the directors of the national statistical institutes of the countries and the Director-General of Eurostat.
Commitment on Confidence in Statistics
As stated in the revision in 2015 of the Regulation No 223/2009 on European statistics in order to improve the governance of European statistics, all Member States are invited to sign up to Commitments on Confidence in Statistics: an official statement in which they will formally commit themselves to taking all necessary measures to maintain confidence in their statistics and to monitoring the implementation of the European Statistics Code of Practice.
This Code has been adopted by the INE as its own (Art 8). Thus, the INE commits itself to observe it when establishing the general principles that regulate the statistical production for central government purposes.
INE's initiatives on this issue may be consulted at the following link: Initiatives for promoting and applying the Code of Practice for European statistics and the Commitment on Confidence.