Scotland’s Census 2021 Statistical Quality Assurance
The success of Scotland’s Census 2021 will be judged primarily on its ability to deliver high quality population and housing statistics in accordance with agreed timescales.
The Government Statistical Service Statistical Policy and Standards Committee (GSS SPSC) define Quality Assurance (QA) as the 'anticipation and avoidance of problems'. It is about having agreed systems that check and validate the work that we do so that our end product is robust and received well by the end user.
Statistical Quality Assurance
- covers all procedures focused on providing confidence that quality requirements will be fulfilled;
- requires processes and systems in place that are planned and tested, and which should self-correct or flag problems under exceptions;
- aims to prevent, reduce or limit the occurrence of errors in a statistical product and therefore, to get it right first time.
Examples of Statistical Quality Assurance includes, but is not limited to,
- data entry systems programmed to pick up scanning errors;
- validation gates programmed into computer systems;
- trend analysis;
- regular checks with admin source;
- peer reviews;
- expertise checks; and
- recreating outputs using different applications
Statistical Quality Assurance Strategy
We have produced a Statistical Quality Assurance Strategy that seeks to provide an overview of how we will assess and measure the level of quality being achieved throughout the collection and processing of Census data and the production and dissemination of statistical outputs. (Statistical Quality Assurance Strategy).
The key quality assurance activities we are developing include:
|
Activity |
Description |
|
Assurance of processes |
Quality assurance activities at data touchpoints throughout the Census data journey |
|
Validation of Population Estimates |
Comparing our National and Local Authority population estimates to other data |
|
Topic-based Analysis |
Comparing our topic-based population estimates to other data |
|
Internal and External Assurance Panels |
Methodology and population estimates reviewed by internal and external experts |
|
All activities and outputs assessed against trustworthiness, quality and value |
UK-wide and international Statistical Quality Assurance
We will continue to work closely with our colleagues in the Office of National Statistics (ONS) who are responsible for delivering the census in England and Wales and our colleagues in the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) who are responsible for delivering the census in Northern Ireland, to harmonise our approach to statistical quality assurance where possible.
The three UK census offices will also continue to work closely with our colleagues from international census organisations in Canada, the Republic of Ireland, the United States of America, Australia and New Zealand to share statistical quality assurance best practice and lessons learned across census operations.
Get Involved
We expect that the quality assurance activities proposed in the strategy will evolve based on stakeholder feedback, evaluation of the census rehearsal in 2019/2020, peer review of tools and methodologies, and our continued work with colleagues from other census offices.
We are seeking views from our stakeholders on the proposed plans we’ve laid out in the Statistical Quality Assurance Strategy to ensure we get it right and undertake the types of quality assurance checks our census data users would expect.
To share your views on our strategy, please contact Scotlandscensus@nrscotland.gov.uk.