1. A. Skalitz – INSEE 26 novembre 2008 The French Business Register : from a quality approach …. ….to a statistical register

2. From a quality approach to a statistical register November 2008 Description of SIRENE  SIRENE : a national business register in which all businesses and their local units are registered since 1994 : a unique identification number, at the core of the inter-administrative system  Content of SIRENE : identification data : civil status of businesses, legal form, the date it was set up and when it ceased trading address of local units a code identifying the principal business activity carried out, number of employees as SIRENE is used in the areas of statistics and trade : economic classification variables (list drawn up after consulting statisticians using the system)

3. From a quality approach to a statistical register November 2008 Inventory of users and requirements UsersSome requirements Inter-administrative use (administrative partners involved in managing the register and businesses) Unique identification Exhaustiveness (even units which are registered only for the needs of a partner) Legal termination Dissemination of information Address, Activity code Statistical use : business demography basis for sampling “survey” managers Exhaustiveness but reference groups Identification Stratification data Economic termination

4. From a quality approach to a statistical register November 2008 An “administrative” approach of the quality  Quality is taken into account in day-to-day management : a workstation with automated processing capabilities (receiving standardized “administrative” information via EDI) which guarantees uniform processing checks into the data-processing flow  Quality is taken into account as an “independent component” (“quality operations”) : at the initiative of register managers at the request of those in charge of surveys  The register managers bring into play quality with the limitations of an interadministrative register  Quite “administrative” approach of the quality

5. From a quality approach to a statistical register November 2008 Volumes of “quality operations”  Updates each year 100,000 legal units with their activity code updated-validated 3.5 million units (legal units or local units) with employee statistics 2 million businesses with turnover statistics updated  Checks 15,000 units checked at the request of statisticians (wrong address for example) 15,000 possible duplicate entries examined 50,000 units possibly misidentified as operational examined  Surveys in 2007, 200,000 surveys-questionnaires sent for the introduction of the NACE

6. From a quality approach to a statistical register November 2008 Links between « quality operations » and Eurostat quality report ? 1/2  “Relevant” component the identification of statistical users and of their expectations taken into account some “quality operations” based on the request of statisticians  “Accuracy” component meaningless… but the “quality operations” improve the “accuracy” of the sampling plans.  Timeliness and punctuality register daily updated by administrative partners (sometimes insufficient ?) mass updates : data are included as soon as available discrepancies : examined as quick as possible.

7. From a quality approach to a statistical register November 2008 Links between « quality operations » and Eurostat quality report ? 2/2  Accessibility and clarity of the information: frozen versions of the business register (for all users or for specific needs) produced quarterly and yearly each month : an extract of the register for the staff responsible of the dissemination of information for all statisticians : a specific tool, to get all the data of a list of units, at a given date  Comparability of statistics : few statistics spring from the register except “business demography”. the day-to-day management of the register and the advanced level of automation provide comparability of statistics (in the time)  Coherence maybe a lack of the register ?

8. From a quality approach to a statistical register November 2008 Towards a new statistical register Prospective 1/2  Review : the use of SIRENE as a central tool for business statistics comes up against its twofold role legal vs economic cessation exhaustiveness vs reference groups  Recent overhaul of the annual business statistics: one of its outputs “to come” is a “statistical register”  Aims of the “statistical register” : based on the “inter-administrative” register and/but closer to the requirements of the statisticians.

9. From a quality approach to a statistical register November 2008 Towards a new statistical register Prospective 2/2  New concepts the definition of “statistical units” the addition of specific data the definition of “reference populations”  A new “quality management” statisticians will manage quality a “quality operation” # “checking all mistakes in a population” more “statistical” updates more automatized updates => classification of sources (to solve inconsistencies between several sources)  Maybe the definition of indicators to measure quality of this statistical register