7 ADMINISTRATIVE AND SURVEY STATISTICS
The Draft Code includes clauses (Section 10, page 17) that point to the
importance of the use of administrative statistics in reducing the burden on
respondents.
These clauses should be welcomed. There is considerable scope for
development of statistics from administrative records. A major example are
the returns made monthly by employers relating to PAYE and National
Insurance Contributions that could be used to substitute for surveys of
employers that are costly to government and, in terms of form-filling, to
employers. An employment series based upon these PAYE/NIC returns could be
more reliable and meaningful than the existing series for employment that
are based on surveys. The PAYE/NIC returns (with some checking of
individuals' addresses) could be used to produce more reliable and
meaningful statistics for employment for local areas than the existing
statistics that are based on surveys of employers.
The PAYE/NIC returns are made to the Department of Inland Revenue a part of
the Treasury. The Treasury controls the Office for National Statistics.
But curiously the Inland Revenue has long jealously and steadfastly defended
the PAYE and NIC returns against any use for the production of statistics by
the ONS - or its precessor the Central Statistical Office. The first signs
of any incursion has come only very recently when it was reported that the
PAYE returns would be used to investigate the matter of equal pay for women
and men.
The Code could well require members of the ONS and GSS to aim to seek to
satisfy statistical needs as far as practicable on the basis of
administrative records. The production of statistics on the basis of
administrative records can be generally expected to be substantially less
costly than that on the basis of surveys involving interviews. The Code of
Practice could well make the point that there are a number of organisations
in Britain with the capability of conducting large scale social surveys (and
of course some of these organisations conduct surveys on behalf of the ONS
and the GSS). But only the ONS and the GSS can expect to have access to
administrative records for the production of statistics.
Ray Thomas
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