Developing Irish Social and Equality Statistics to meet Policy Needs - Report of the Steering Group on Social and Equality Statistics

Executive Summary

The National Statistics Board is responsible to Government for setting priorities for the compilation and development of official statistics in Ireland and for guiding the strategic direction of the Central Statistics Office. In its Progress Report 2001, the Board formally recognised that a comprehensive long-term strategy was needed to develop the social statistics required to support policy formulation and to monitor progress on achieving agreed social and equality outcomes. 

As a first step the Board, in consultation with the Senior Officials Group on Social Inclusion, proposed that a study be undertaken to determine the scope of expected or likely requirements for social and equality statistics and the extent to which these are being met, or could be met, by existing statistical surveys and administrative records. To undertake the study, a Steering Group on Social and Equality Statistics was established comprising key policy and statistical staff in relevant government departments, CSO staff, and experts with experience in analyzing social data in Ireland from a range of perspectives. 

As a result of this scoping study, the Steering Group has made twelve specific recommendations on actions necessary to ensure that Ireland has the statistical information on social and equality issues required to plan policy and monitor progress on social inclusion. 

These recommendations are made in the pursuance of a vision for social statistics which includes:

  • A collectively agreed national framework for social and equality statistics which delivers a comprehensive picture of Irish society and its diversity;(Recommendations 1 and 2)
  • Systematic identification of the data required by the public sector and by society in order to track change, identify issues, plan policy, and monitor progress;
    (Recommendations 3 and 4)
  • Methods which deliver the required statistics at high quality, least cost and with due regard for data protection; and (Recommendations 5 to 9)
  • Effective use of social statistics to inform policy and assist planning.(Recommendations 10 to 12) 

Recommendation 1

The CSO, under the guidance of the NSB, should set out a framework for social and equality statistics, the key social statistics and indicators in each domain, and the key disaggregations required of these statistics/indicators. The process for undertaking this should be set out in the Boards forthcoming 2003-2008 Strategy for Statistics. 

Recommendation 2

The NSB together with the Senior Officials Group on Social Inclusion should support progress on the implementation of this framework and in particular ensure that the production of data is informed by the evolving requirements of data users. This should be reported on annually to government in the progress reports of the National Statistics Board.  

Recommendation 3

Each department should establish an appropriate committee bringing together data users (including appropriate outside experts and data users) and data producers to design and deliver its statistics strategy. In departments which encompass several very distinct areas of policy (e.g. Justice, Equality and Law Reform), it may be appropriate to establish statistics subcommittees serving individual policy areas. These departmental statistics committees should: 

a. Determine how, and to what extent, the departments data needs can be met within the department;

b. Establish what information not internally available is required;

c. Identify the data needs in respect of complex and cross-cutting issues with which the department is concerned; and

d. Identify how the skills of its staff in using data as a tool for policy evaluation and development can be enhanced. 

Recommendation 4

Arising from this exercise, a formal data/statistics strategy should be devised within each department as an integral part of its information strategy, and in turn this should be included within its formal Statement of Strategy and reported on in its annual report. 

Recommendation 5

More standardisation, co-ordination and classification of data collection and maintenance are required, so that data banks across the public service can be interrogated using a common approach2. Such standardisation should be agreed interdepartmentally by those responsible for developing statistical strategies in each department. This should take place under the auspices of the CSO in conjunction with the Senior Officials Group on Social Inclusion. 

Recommendation 6

Investigation is required into the expanded use of a common identifier, such as the PPS Number, with a view to linking discrete datasets and to seeing how longitudinal datasets can be developed based on existing administrative data. 

Recommendation 7

The CSO be asked to set out formally how its process of data integration and the subsequent treatment of statistics generated by data integration (including access for research) can be safely employed without data protection problems. 

Recommendation 8

The NSB in conjunction with the SOGSI should be asked to set out formally how departments would use and protect individual data available to them for statistical purposes. 

Recommendation 9

The documents, arising from recommendations 7 and 8, should be referred to the Data Protection Commissioner for confirmation that this process does not undermine the data protection rights of individuals. 

Recommendation 10

The social and equality indicators derived should be disseminated widely, through the publication (with associated web-based databanks) by the CSO of an annual publication similar to that produced by the ONS in the UK, namely, UK Social Trends. 

The data generated through this process would also meet the international requirements on Ireland to produce social statistics.  

Recommendation 11

In line with other countries, consideration should be given to the publication of a social report, prepared or commissioned by, say, the NESC. In it, progress, as measured by key social indicators, would be related to the objectives of social and equality policy, and be linked directly to similar measures for other countries. 

Recommendation 12

The social and equality statistics derived from administrative data should be available in user-friendly form on the web, with links in both directions between the statistics sections of individual government department websites and the CSO website.

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