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33. In making decisions about Scottish Official Statistics all involved will have the following objectives:
To ensure production of the statistics needed to:
(a) assist government and its agencies to carry out its business efficiently and effectively and to make decisions on an informed basis.
(b) allow Scottish Ministers to formulate policies and monitor and evaluate delivery so as to promote progress of their objectives for Scotland.
(c) inform the Scottish Parliament about the state of the nation and the performance of government and to allow the impact of government policies and actions to be assessed.
(d) support the accountability of government to the general public for the performance of the services provided through public resources/taxpayers money.
(e) provide business and other public bodies with statistics on public matters needed for them to operate efficiently and effectively.
(f) provide researchers, analysts, other customers and the general public with statistics needed to assist their work and studies.
(g) provide the statistics required to meet international obligations and facilitate comparisons between Scotland and other countries.
To build public trust and confidence in statistics by:
- achieving the highest standards of professional independence.
- ensuring that Ministers do not control methods of production or format, content and timing of statistics releases.
- ensuring that Ministers are ultimately responsible for the scope and coverage of statistics but decisions on these matters should be delegated as much as possible to the professional statistical service and subject to public and Parliamentary scrutiny.
- ensuring that the planning and production of statistics is co-ordinated and integrated with other government research and analysis to promote an holistic approach to the production of evidence to support policy formulation and delivery.
- achieving efficiency and effectiveness in collection and production, eliminating unnecessary burden on data providers, and making use of administrative data where appropriate for statistical purposes.
- adhering to other international standards for the integrity of statistics, including openness and involvement of users.
To ensure that official statistics meet international standards for the quality of statistics, namely:
- relevance
- accuracy
- timeliness
- accessibility and clarity
- comparability and coherence
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