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Independence and equal treatment Independence and equal treatment policy in Statistics Norwaypolicy in Statistics Norway

Principles, realities and challenges

Fride Eeg-Henriksen, senior adviser, Department of communications

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Independence and equal treatment

• Strict equal treatment policy

• No users access before anybody else

• Fixed dates - preannounced

Figures for planning of public finances- exception I

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Owners of administrative dataexception II

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User- financed- voluntary surveysexception III

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European Code of Practice- Peer review on the implementation in Statistics Norway - 2007

• All users treated equitably- «Largely met»

• Dissemination policy document at www.ssb.no

• But: Make exceptions more visible ;-)6

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Updating ”About the statistics”- a challenging job

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Preparing for a review in 2014

• Revised Code of Practice 2011– Strengthening requirements about independence

• Self- initiated internal review 2011-2012– 18 different statistics– 16 «About the statistics» not updated– «Unknown» exceptions to the surface

• More thorough review in 2014

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Why so demanding?

• 400 different statistics

• No overview of exceptions

• Production and dissemination first

• Documentation low priority– Especially when workload is high..– Dissemination policy not high concern outside the Communications

department– Authority of the Communications department

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What is to be done now?

• Update in due time before next peer review

• The exceptions– Overview, procedure to cover all of them– Restructure «About the statistics» – Standardized texts in «About the statistics»

• Staff, co-operation and division of labour– Communications– Metadata– Quality– Agency lawyer– Subject matter units

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Media policy to be made more visible

• Revised dissemination policy document

• Equal treatment of media and importance of independence

• Active media strategy- after release/publication