Section 7 Objective
48.This section provides the Board with an objective for its functions relating to official statistics (sections 8 to 19) to guide the Board’s work in these areas. The section requires the Board to promote and safeguard the production and publication of official statistics that serve the public good, including by informing the public about social and economic matters, and assisting in the development and evaluation of public policy.
49.Subsection (3) requires the Board to safeguard and promote the quality and comprehensiveness of official statistics, as well as good practice in relation to official statistics.
50.Subsection (4) defines ‘quality’ as including impartiality, accuracy, relevance and coherence with other official statistics. In addition, accessibility (making statistics easily and widely available in a fair and open way) is defined as an element of good practice. The Board is not limited to considering only these aspects of quality and good practice, and might also be expected to look at those other dimensions, including aspects of quality highlighted by Eurostat (3), such as timeliness and comparability.
Eurostat is the European Commission’s body responsible for providing the EU’s statistical information service. (http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu)