1 Quality reporting within the Eurostat and the ESS metadata systems August Götzfried and Håkan Linden Eurostat Unit B6: Reference databases and metadata

2 Current situation Within the European Statistical System (ESS) reporting on statistical data quality exists in many statistical domains….

3 … BUT : –Quality reports do not exist for all statistical processes within the ESS; –No homogeneity between the different report structures used for data quality reporting; –Not all the quality related information is made publicly available; –No common and standard IT infrastructure is used within the ESS;  The new Eurostat vision: “Improving the production method of EU statistics” requires an improvement action. Problem statement

4 Progress made since : introduction of the Euro SDMX Metadata Structure (ESMS) at Eurostat and the ESS for the production and dissemination of reference metadata (Commission Recommendation 498/2009) 01/2009: release of the new version of the ESS quality reporting documents: ESS Standard for Quality Reports (ESQR) ESS Handbook for Quality Reports (EHQR)  Detailed requirements following the European Statistics Code of Practice  ESS Quality and Performance Indicators (QPI’s) defined 03/09: EP/Council Regulation 223/2009  Article 12 defining the quality criteria to be reported 2009/2010: Development and deployment of the Eurostat Metadata Handler with: EMIS: production and dissemination of ESMS files at Eurostat National Reference Metadata Editor (NRME): production, transmission and dissemination of national ESMS files

5 ESMS and ESQR ESMS is more oriented to the USERS of statistics  to understand the statistical data released  there is no need for too detailed information on data quality  21 SDMX cross domain concepts used ESQR is more oriented to the PRODUCERS of statistics  to monitor the quality of the statistics produced in detail  concentrating on the main quality concepts (being also part of the ESS Statistics Regulation No 223/2009) However, there is information on quality criteria which is common to both ESMS and ESQR.

6 ESMS and ESQR: the starting point

7 The new ESQRS Based on the ESQR, a new report structure - the ESS Standard for Quality Reports Structure: ESQRS - was created for harmonising the reporting on statistical data quality within the ESS. The ESQRS is using the main statistical data quality criteria as listed in EP/Council Regulation 223/2009 and as being part of the ESMS and details them further : Relevance Accuracy Timeliness and Punctuality Accessibility and Clarity Comparability Coherence A subset of the Quality Performance Indicators (QPI’s) is also covered in the new ESQRS.

8 ESQR and ESQRS

9 The ESQRS

10 The ESMS and the ESQRS The metadata produced in the ESMS and ESQRS need to be kept consistent. The ESQRS is based on the ESQR, but not taking up all the chapters contained in the latter one. The information in the ESQRS is more detailed compared to the information on statistical data quality contained in the ESMS.  ESQRS reports deeper in terms of data quality compared to the ESMS

11 The ESMS and the ESQRS

12 ESS Guidelines The guidelines for quality reporting from ESS Handbook for Quality Reports (EHQR) are already used in the “ESS Guidelines” for ESMS. These guidelines will be further used in the ESQRS in order to provide detailed guidelines for 6 different statistical processes: Sample survey Census Statistical Process using Administrative Sources Statistical Process involving Multiple Data Sources Price or other Economic Index Process Statistical Compilation

13 The underlying IT infrastructure The Eurostat Metadata Handler as IT tool for the production, transmission and dissemination of the ESQRS metadata.

14 The ESQRS Statistical Business Process National Metadata Editor NRME DatabaseEurostat Website National ESQRS National ESQRS National and Eurostat ESQRS eDamis PRODUCTIONTREATMENT AND ANALYSIS DISSEMINATION NATIONAL STATISTICAL AUTHORITY EUROSTAT

15 Production and dissemination of metadata at national and European level EU Member StatesEurostat ESQRS - Production of national ESQRS - Transmission of national ESQRS to Eurostat - Dissemination of national ESQRS (if decided so) -Production of the Eurostat ESQRS based on the national ESQRS -Dissemination of the Eurostat ESQRS if decided so - Checking and dissemination of the national ESQRS (dissemination only if decided so) ESMS -Production of national ESMS files -Transmission of national ESMS files to Eurostat - Dissemination of national ESMS files (if decided so) -Production of the Eurostat ESMS files -Dissemination of the Eurostat ESMS files - Checking and dissemination of the national ESMS files (dissemination only if decided so)

16 Summary New reporting structure for quality related metadata has been created: the ESQRS. The ESQRS is based on the existing EU legislation and documentation for data quality in the ESS. The quality indicators contained in the ESQRS allow the harmonised measurement/ monitoring of the statistical data quality within and across statistical processes. The ESS quality reporting will successively be converted into the ESQRS by the use of the National Reference Metadata Editor The ESQRS needs to be further promoted and communicated within and beyond the ESS.