Reducing the administrative burden in official statistics
– Enterprise respondents in focus
SIMPLY2010 Ghent Conference
2.-3. December 2010
Hannele OrjalaDirector, Business Trends Department
Outline
Finnish Action Plan for reducing administrative burden Enterprise data collection programme of Statistics Finland
Comprehensive information on data collections online and enterprise data collection service
Promotion of electronic data collection and direct data collection Measurement of the response burden in statistics Challenges 2011-2014
Development of respondent relations Conclusions
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Statistics Finland
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
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Finnish Action Plan for the reduction of the administrative burden on businesses 2009-2012
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 2009-2012
The aim is to reduce burden by 25 per cent from the 2006 level by the end of 2012
Contains eight priority areas + one horizontal priority1. Taxation 2. Employers’ reporting obligations 3. Financial reporting 4. Public procurement5. Environmental permit procedures 6. Food safety and quality 7. Statistics8. Agricultural subsidization procedures
Development of electronic communication for businesses is the horizontal priority. eGovernment is a key measure to reduce administrative burden in Finland
EU legislation – what can a Member State do?
Heavy use of administrative and commercial data (Finland 40-50 different sources, 95% 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)
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EU legal acts in force relating to Statistics Finland
Enterprise data collection programme 2007-2011 - Tasks and aims
Coordinate statistics and development projects Identify and evaluate development needs Share information and good practises Measure response burden of statistics in Finland Participate in the Finnish Action Plan for reducing administrative burden
2012decline in response burdenbusiness register used as a sample framesample coordination and optimizationstandard solutions for data collection
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Production process of statistics
Suppliers and sources of data
Keepers of administrative data files
Enterprises and corporations
IndividualsHouseholds
Datausers
Publicadministration
Enterprises andcorporations
Research
Media
Ordinary people
Metadata: Interperetation of contents, process steering, data management, statistical methods, concepts and classifications
Acquiring data • Direct data collection• Exploitation
of administra-
tive data files
Data processing
Analysis Publication and dissemination • Web services• Publications
Production process of statistics
Feedback and continuous, systematic improvement
The main projects of the programme are:
Comprehensive information on data collections online and enterprise data collection service
Quality assurance and automatic editing for VAT and employer payments data
Processing of data on large enterprises and development of procedures to handle respondent relations with large enterprises
Measurement of the response burden
Improvement of the usability of electronic (web-based) data collection forms
Direct data collection from the information systems of enterprises
Development of the co-ordination of samples for statistics on enterprises
Making the Business Register the core element for data on enterprises
Development of the system for receiving administrative data
Sample coordination, editing etc.
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Developing direct data collection - cases
Action Background/information
1. Comprehensive information on data collections online and enterprise data collection service
http://www.stat.fi/keruu/yritys_en.htmlhttp://www.stat.fi/keruu/tiedonkeruupalvelu_yrityksille_en.html
2. Promotion of electronic data collection and direct data collection from the information systems of enterprises
• 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-)• 76-100 % web response rate• Improvement of the usability of electronic (web- based) data collection forms
3. Measurement of the response burden
Modification of standard cost model
Comprehensive information on data collections online and enterprise data
collection service
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Enterprise data collection service – an example Contains information about the inquiries
60-70 independent data collection processes Data collection pages, an enterprise can ;
find basic information about the inquiriesseek guidance for answering inquirieslog in to the inquiry / answer via webfind links to inquiry results find contact information of statisticscheck which Statistics Finland’s data collections concern
them
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Data collection service
19.04.23Statistics FinlandData collections
16 June 2008 13Hannele Orjala
http://www.tilastokeskus.fi/keruu/yritys_en.html
19.04.23Statistics Finland Data collection service
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Enterprise data collection service -content
Statistics Finland
Enterprise data collection service
Promotion of electronic data collection and direct data collection from the information systems
of enterprises
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Direct collection vs. utilization of administrative datain statistics on enterprises
Business statistics
Number of enterprises,
direct data collection
Administrative data
Structural Business Statistics
8,000 (3%) 270,000
Business Register 25,000 (5%) over 550,000
Short Term Business Statistics
• Turnover 2,000 (1%) 250,000
• Wages and salaries
61(<0.001%) 110,000
Quarterly and monthly statistics, only/mainly web inquiry
More info
The quarterly inquiry on international trade in services
On request an exell form, few excel-respondents
The sales inquiry, monthly Possibility to download paper form from Internet, over 90% response rate by web
The sales inquiry/Fixed assets data, monthly -”-
Labour cost index in the private sector, quarterly Possibility to download paper form from Internet
Price inquiry on producer price indices for manufactured products, monthly
30 % gets the form via e-mail, also possibility to download paper form from Internet (only few)
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Annual statistics, only web inquiry More info
The annual inquiry on foreign trade in services On request an exell form, few excel-respondents
Periodical regional survey of trade Possibility to download paper form from Internet, 25-30 % answer by paper
Periodic survey of motor vehicle trade -”-
Periodical survey of retail trade -”-
Periodical survey of wholesale trade -”-
Finnish affiliates abroad Only electronic web-form
Business Services Statistics -”-
Financial statements inquiry for enterprises Possibility to download paper form from Internet, 10 % answer by paper
Inquiry for industrial establishments -”-
Inquiry on manufacturing commodities Automatically only web-form for previous web-respondent, for other respondents also paper form
Business Register inquiry for small single-establishment enterprises
Possibility to download paper form from Internet or get on request a paper form, 1 % answer by paper
Business Register inquiry for single-establishment enterprises
-”-
Business Register inquiry for new enterprises -”-
Inquiry on private sector wages and salaries Possibility to download paper form from Internet
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Data direct from hotel management system – XML Web Service – an example
Choose month and send the report
Choose report to Statistics Finland
October
October
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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
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Response burden (2009) 21% of enterprises received at least one data collection 68% received only one inquiry Burden measurement: Questionnaires in 41 surveys 2008-2009
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 collectionsPercentage of
active enterprises*1 2-4 5-9 10- Total
Under 10 persons 45,059 8,321 267 10 53,657 16%10-49 persons 3,255 7,925 2,853 122 14,155 91%50-249 persons 94 646 1,246 752 2,738 100%Over 249 persons 12 47 127 496 682 100%Total 48,420 16,939 4,493 1,380 71,232 21%% 68% 24% 6% 2% 100%
The response burden inquiry
1) How many persons participated in preparing and filling in the answers to the questions included in the inquiry?
Within your enterprise ___ persons, outside your enterprise ___ persons.
2) How much time did you spend on acquiring and processing the inquired data prior to their actual entry onto the questionnaire? (total time for all participants) ____ hours and ____ minutes.
3) How long did it take you to actually fill in the questionnaire?____ hours and ____ minutes.
4) Have any changes been made to your information systems in the past three years to make it easier for you to answer to this inquiry?
None Minor changes Some changes Extensive changes Don’t know
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5) Did you find that answering to the inquiry was? Very easy Fairly easy Neither easy nor burdensome Fairly burdensome Very burdensome
6) How did you find the inquiry you just answered?There were too many questions Yes No The questions were complicated Yes No The inquired data were available at the time of answering Yes No The answering required lengthy calculations Yes No The data had to be gathered from two or more sources Yes No Help was needed from other persons Yes No The inquired data were available at your enterprise Yes No It was difficult to decide which answer would be correct Yes No The definitions and instruction were not very clear Yes No The layout made the questionnaire difficult to read Yes No There were technical problems with the web-based questionnaire Yes No Other reasons that increased the burden of answering?
______________________________________________________________
7) Feedback and suggestions for improvement concerning the questionnaires, instructions, customer service, data collection application or other matters related to the inquiry:
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Statistics Finland total:Did you find that answering to the inquiry was? – an example of results
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Statistics Finland total :Sources of response burden - an example of results
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The most burdensome inquiries: Total time spent on acquiring and processing the inquired data and filling in the inquiry top 12, year 2009
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TO Statistics on agriculture Yearly 8 697 22,9
YR Financial statements inquiry for enterprises (TILKES) Yearly 8 482 17,4
HP Labour cost survey 2008 Other regular 2 849 16,6
TO Authority data collection (Virati) Quarterly x 1 656 14,1
YS Business Register and emplaoyment statistics inquiry for multi-establishment enterprises Yearly 5 252 10,2
TO Outstanding credit Quarterly 2 396 10,2
YR Inquiry on manufacturing commodities Yearly 4 081 9,8
HP Labour cost index in the private sector Quarterly 6 988 9,6
YS Monthly inquiry for accomodation statistics Monthly 12 198 9,2
YS Inquiry on volume index of industrial output Monthly 12 720 9,0
YR Inquiry for industrial establishments Yearly 2 013 7,7
HP Price inquiry on producer price indices for manufactured products Monthly 22 800 6,2
Yks Name of data collection
Frequency of
data
collecting
Number of
respondents
The number
of staff-
years
Estimated
response
burden
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 / 1717.5)
Statistics Finland 190 staff-yearsNational Board of Customs: Intrastat 210 staff-yearsCosts
(Source: Private sector monthly salaries average, year 2008, in Classification of Occupations: Clerks)
Statistics Finland’s direct data collections EUR 8.3 millionNational Board of Customs: Intrastat EUR 9.2 million
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Project on usability testing of web questionnaires
The aim of the project is to do usability testing with data collections during 2009-2010
Business Register inquiry for multi-establishment enterprises, Finnish affiliates abroad, Inquiry on service commodity, Information technology and electronic commerce in enterprises, Inquiry on private sector wages and salaries, Financial statements inquiry for enterprises and Finance of housing corporations
The screen capture software DreamScreen brought the experience of respondents into the
video clips are in the server behind password and could be seen in Internet just clicking the hyperlink of a recording
As a broader goal is to develop a model of usability testing process in Statistics Finland and develop design guidelines in web questionnaires
A long term goal is to launch user-centered design methods culture
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Challenges of the programme 2011-2014
The Business Register in a consistent enterprise data system 2,1 million Euro finance 2011-2014 30+ staff-years
FIA – fully integrated accounting system Partners with enterprises, Tax Authorities and many other
organisations Data directly from enterprise accounting systems via common report
codes Common web identification ”Katso”
One common system with the authorities
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The Business Register in a consistent enterprise data system
”Enterprise production database” (1)
-Production system of the Business Register
-Production systems of other /selected statistics
Free unit information
service on web
Charged batch service
Data collection
Administrative files, their metadata and their basic checking
Direct data collection(XCOLA, FIA etc.?)
Processing of data into production database
Estimation, imputationData checking,utilisation of data from other statistics,prompt verification of structural changes
Data processing Data dissemination
Updating once a day
Annual statistics on
Finnish enterprises
Statistics X on
enterprises
Inquiries to enterprises jointly with other statistics
Warehouse of data on
enterprises(2)
Data on each item only once.
E.g. industry, turnover,personnel
NationalAccounts
Information service
Updating once a day
Co-ordination of samples
Register of data providers Archiving
of data
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Production process of statistics – co-operation
Suppliers and sources of data
Keepers of administrative data files
Enterprises and corporations
IndividualsHouseholds
Datausers
Publicadministration
Enterprises andcorporations
Research
Media
Ordinary people
Metadata: Interperetation of contents, process steering, data management, statistical methods, concepts and classifications
Acquiring data • Direct data collection• Exploitation
of administra-
tive data files
Data processing
Analysis Publication and dissemination • Web services• Publications
Production process of statistics
Feedback and continuous, systematic improvement
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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 19.10.2010
-SNA and ESA-ROAD TRAFFIC TRANSPORT STATISTICS-EGR- STS Sales inquiry
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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 2007-2011 and the
Finnish Action Plan for reduction of administrative burden 2009-2012 Cooperation with data providers and respondents
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Thank you for your attention!
Hannele Orjala
Director, Business Trends Department
Statistics Finland
www.stat.fi/index_en.html