Preparing for A Strategy for Change Based on Previous Experiences Steve Vale Office for National Statistics, UK

Contents Background SIC(92) Lessons Learned SIC(2003) Lessons Learned Strategy for 2007

Background Major revision of international classifications of economic activity for 2007 Discontinuities for statistical outputs Substantial changes for statistical business registers Transition needs to be carefully managed to maintain quality

Standard Industrial Classification Hierarchical classification based on 5-digit codes UK version of NACE Consistent at higher levels with ISIC Last major revision Minor revisions late 1990s and 2003

SIC(92) Implementation: Approach Clerical re-coding from recent register proving survey questionnaires Specific register proving exercise for SIC(92) and new business register Automatic imputation of codes for remaining small enterprises Old and new classifications both live on the register for one year

SIC(92) Implementation: Lessons learned Consistency problems when more than one classification is “live” Quality (consistency) of coding could be improved using coding software Burden on businesses of extra register proving survey Avoid simultaneous major changes so that individual impacts can be analysed

SIC (2003) Implementation: Approach Stored business descriptions for local units re-coded clerically Automatic coder updated as soon as sufficient metadata available Clerical and automatic coding results compared Forward and backward correlation tables constructed for local units with no stored description Local unit codes fed up to enterprise level

SIC(2003) Implementation: Lessons learned Planning time for data suppliers too short – inconsistent implementation Store business descriptions for automatic re-coding Improve questionnaires to capture better quality business descriptions Relevance of new codes needs testing Re-coding can impact on register quality and bias

… continued Register customers need early warning of changes Register users need re-training, especially coding staff Total cost > Euro (part funded by Eurostat)

Strategy for 2007 Increased use of stored business activity descriptions and automatic coding software Correlation tables for smaller units Limited clerical resource for quality assurance and impact assessment Evaluate success afterwards

Key Requirements Automatic coding tool Time – 18 months needed between final codes and implementation to: –Update coding tool –Allow suppliers time to adapt –Re-code –Create and test correlation tables –Analyse impact Resources – staff and money

Further information Any Questions?