Q2016 – European Conference on Quality in Official Statistics – Madrid 2016

Topics

The Conference encompasses relevant topics on quality – the different areas covered are as follows.

I. Institutional environment and governance

Ethics in the context of evidence based decision making
Implementation of the amendment to Regulation 223/2009 and the coordination role of the National Statistical Institutes
The new, modernised legal framework of the ESS, using legislative framework for the different families of statistics
Experiences with the Commitments on Confidence
The 2013-2015 peer reviews: lessons learned and reflections on next steps
Towards a second revision of the ES Code of Practice
Quality in a more integrated European Statistical System, challenges faced
Adequacy of resources in a competitive environment for official statistics
Human resources aspects: education in statistics, networks of education facilities, training
Cooperation with researchers
Product list and definition of EU statistics

II. Quality of statistical processes and outputs, quality assurance

Quality: the users’ perspective
New quality measurement methods; quality assessments and quality indicators
Communicating quality to users, quality reporting; branding and labelling; indicator profiles
Metadata standardisation and centralisation, metadata registries; paradata and quality
Re-engineering and re-designing statistical production, modernisation; integrated production methods
The future of standards in statistics
Data confidentiality and data quality, a trade off?
Quality in business statistics, trans-border statistics: global enterprises, profiling, etc
Quality in social statistics, measuring quality of life, etc.
Comparability of European statistics
Quality of census (movie/snapshot approaches); migration ; demography
Quality in macro-statistics: the new production boundary and the ESA 2010; globalization and the GDP; sustainable development and GDP measures

III. ESS Vision 2020 and its Quality key area

Quality in the Vision 2020, the ESS Vision 2020 Implementation Portfolio and its quality aspects
Enterprise architecture for statistical production;
Big data and quality
Data revolution: quality challenges for tourism statistics as an example
Quality and multi-sources statistics;
Administrative data and quality
Validation
Exchange of microdata: current issues

IV. The production of official statistics: a changing landscape

Towards integration of statistical and geospatial information
Role of data scientists in statistical production
Role of official statistics in the information and knowledge-driven society
Open / linked data
Design versus model based inference; use of modelling in official statistics; impact on quality and Code of practice
Comparability: input/output harmonisation
Partnership between public/private organisations

Genovefa Ružić

Director-General of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia

Ms Genovefa Ružić graduated at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Economics, in economic analysis and planning in January 1985. She started her career at the Statistical Office 31 years ago and has since worked in different statistical domains, mainly in the field of social and economic statistics. She was also Head of the Social Statistics Division. For six years she worked for the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs as Head of Analysis and Development in the Field of Social Affairs. At that time she was an intensive user of statistics while preparing analyses and studies as a basis for decision-making. She coordinated the preparation of the first national Programme to Combat Poverty and Social Exclusion.

Ms Ružić was appointed Deputy Director-General of the Statistical Office of Slovenia in June 2003. As Deputy Director-General she was responsible for leading key projects at the Statistical Office of Slovenia and for coordination with other national institutions. She was Deputy President of the Statistical Council of Slovenia and a member of the Slovenian Council for Sustainable Development. Ms Ružić was Chair of the Council Working Party on Statistics during the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2008.

The Government of the Republic of Slovenia appointed Ms Ružić Director-General of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia effective on 21 August 2013 for a period of five years.

Her professional work involves also activities in European statistical system and in the international statistical environment. The European Statistical System Committee elected her chair of the ESS Partnership Group for the 2016-2018 period.

Ms Ružić is also a member of the UNECE High-level Group for the Modernisation of Official Statistics and a member of the Bureau of the OECD Committee on Statistics and Statistical Policy.

Wayne Smith

Chief Statistician of Canada, Wayne Smith

Born in Chilliwack, British Columbia, Wayne Smith completed an Honours B.A. and
Masters degree in Economics at Carleton University in Ottawa.

His early career was in the library, academic and news media sectors. In 1981, he joined Statistics Canada, working in the advisory services, communications, census and agriculture programs before becoming Director of Communications Division in 1990. After assignments as Director of Special Surveys Division and Director General of Regional Operations Branch, he was appointed in 2004 as Assistant Chief Statistician, Communications and Operations.

In April 2009, he became Assistant Chief Statistician of Business and Trade Statistics Field. In this role, his principal responsibilities involved the conduct of Statistics Canada surveys and administrative data programs in the areas of agriculture, business, international trade and prices. On September 2nd, 2010, by Order in Council, Wayne R. Smith was appointed interim Chief Statistician and confirmed as Chief Statistician of Canada on January 18, 2011.

Mr. Smith chairs the Conference of European Statisticians under the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and is vice-chair of the Bureau of the OECD Committee on Statistics and Statistical Policy. At the request of the UN Secretary-General, in 2014 he served on an Independent Expert Advisory Group on the Data Revolution for Sustainable Development.