Meeting of the Modernisation Task Force

/ EUROPEAN COMMISSION
EUROSTAT
Directorate F: Social Statistics and Information Society /

28 January 2011

Luxembourg BECH A3/045

Draft Minutes

Chair: Inna Šteinbuka (Eurostat)

Participants

TF Members: Lydia Merckx (BE), Martin Zeleny (CZ), Niels Ploug (DK), Bernd Becker (DE), Urve Kask (EE), Marie Hélène Amiel (FR), Wim Van Nunspeet (NL), Wlodzimierz Okrasa (PL), Dennis Roberts (UK)

Eurostat: Bettina Knauth, Joachim Recktenwald, Jean-Louis Mercy; Christine Coin, Anne Clemenceau, Mikhail Skaliotis, Marleen De Smedt, Ceri Thompson

Invited speaker: Antonio Argüeso,

The Chair welcomed participants and introduced the day by setting the Workshop in context as part of a process that began with the adoption of the "Vision" communication and is working towards the development of strategy to modernise the data collection of social statistics within the EU. Eurostat would today present some proposals and on-going work for reactions from participants. Further comments could be provided by 11 February.

Anne Clemenceau and Joachim Recktenwald presented Eurostat's proposal to rationalise the system of micro-data collections for social statistics at EU level into two pillars.

There was support from participants for the two-pillar approach and appreciation of the proposal. Furthermore, the extended use of administrative data, a review of variables as regards the appropriate frequency, and the elimination of unnecessary duplications between the two pillars were considered important. There was general agreement this is a difficult issue, but one which had to be tackled now and that it was important to keep up the momentum.

In general the idea of the first pillar, centring on the LFS was accepted. (It was, however, pointed out that in smaller countries, sub-sampling from the LFS might not be possible.) However doubts were expressed on the second pillar to be built around EU SILC. The Task Force raised concern at the implications for burden on respondents, especially given the competing demands on EU SILC to become a major provider of quality of life data.

Eurostat clarified that the SILC legal basis has entered a revision process, and will circulate the membership of this group. The revision will need to take into account a number of factors: the need to modernise the whole system; pressures to improve timeliness, increase relevance, improve efficiency, reduce burden as well as its new role to become the leading source of data for quality of life indicators. Eurostat agreed that it would be valuable to bring a discussion of the second pillar into the Quality of Life Task Force.

Regarding the overall pillar approach, the TF appreciated themodularisation and requested further elaboration, and stressed that the links to the mode of data collection (increasing use of mixed-mode designs including web-based interviewing) would have to be taken into account. Work on the two-pillar approach would need to be aligned with the planned reviews of the legal bases of the LFS and SILC. On the general approach the Task Force raised the following issues:

What would be the efficiency gains on data production under a rolling module approach
What would impact, if any, would this approach have on users, and their ability to carry out policy analysis.
What is the extent and timing of likely efficiency improvements, and cost savings - some MS are facing intense pressure to save resources quickly, for 2013-2014.

Further ideas were to carry out an assessment of impact on the transition to a two pillar approach; and to keep an open mind as to whether the second pillar should in fact be divided to make three pillars overall. It was also proposed that Eurostat could take a more critical approach to quality, and challenge its own assumption that the current level of quality is the right one.

The members of the group would provide more detailed feedback in writing.

Marleen De Smedt (Eurostat) presented her work on data on persons in institutionalised households which aims to capture data from the growing population in institutions such as old people's homes.

In general the Task Force considered that was valuable work for the future, and raised specific points:-

That knowing the numbers involved would be valuable to take into account any bias from non coverage of the specific populations in institutionalised households (could be important for measuring topics such as aging, disability, deprivation).
Use of the census was considered a reasonable start (for getting the number of people involved and possibly for developing a sampling frame) although some countries (such as the UK) are considering to no longer have a traditional census beyond 2011
Given the nature of the respondents (elderly, with disability) there are particular challenges to obtaining survey data on these populations, beyond just collecting the numbers.

Anne Clemenceau suggested to include the Washington Group questions on disability into a next census round.

Jean-Louis Mercy (Eurostat) presented the results of a survey to capture Member States' starting points for modernisation. The Task Force highlighted a number of possible actions aimed at improving the situation in those countries where fewer prerequisites for modernisation were in place, for example:

European level legislative initiatives were considered as a possible support for countries to put in place a framework that would allow access to administrative data. Such initiatives could take the form of soft acquis (such as Council Conclusions).
A workshop could be valuable to have an exchange of experiences in areas where there is now a critical mass of countries, such as in the use of tax registers.
For those countries not able to access tax data, it was suggested they explore whether it can be accessed in order to comply with European statistical law, as this is sometimes possible even when not allowed for the national exercise.
Other topics for good practice sharing workshops were considered such as mixed mode, and on internet use.

Antonio Argüeso (Spain) presented Spain's work to publish provisional data on EU SILC. Data available only two months after data collection ended shows a very high degree of accuracy compared to the final publications. The exercise was also carried out on the Household Business Survey and resulted in a 2.2 % error margin between provisional and final data.

In discussion the following points were made:

In Spain, it should be easy to produce provisional data for the EU headline indicator on the at risk of poverty or social exclusion
It could be worth investigating whether any of the techniques to improve timeliness for business sector statistics are applicable to social statistics. A feasibility study could assess the range of options.
The approach applies for the country using surveys. NL proposed to present their experiences in faster estimations based on register data.

ESTAT proposed an exercise to try, informally, to replicate this experiment in other MS to assess its possibility for generalisation in the “survey countries”. A number of participants expressed interest, for confirmation by mid February. More volunteers MS could be requested at the DSS in March. Eurostat would further consider the timeframe for the exercise.

Christine Coin (Eurostat) introduced the discussion of actions to take place as part of the Annual Work Plan (2012) and for the forthcoming Multi-Annual Programme (2013-2017). It was explained that this was the first opportunity for the TF to make suggestions regarding what kinds of activities they would like to see Eurostat undertake in support of the modernisation process (whether upstream technical studies, facilitation of good practice activities, supporting actions in the form of soft of hard legislative actions), as well as to propose solid blocks of action for funding between 2012 and 2013. An illustrative table was presented.

In discussion, and in addition to possible actions mentioned above early ideas for actions, or for better clarification of the strategic approach, included:-

Development of a shared IT platform that could work across the different social surveys within the ESS
Information on developments towards a European metadata exchange; and link up to any on-going infrastructure projects that may be relevant to social statistics
Build upon existing experience acquired through the MEETS programme, especially the MEETS ESSNET project on using administrative sources in order to ensure that we are not "stove piping"
Whether the approach could include ambitious goals, for example to move the census data collection entirely towards administrative sources. Some MS value such goals in order to give focus to their commissioned research over the coming years.
Define a pace on how the modernised system will look like, including actions to be launched with regards to the two pillars previously discussed.
It was important that in addition to defining topics, questions were raised about the mechanism by which funds would be accessed. It would be important to communicate to NSIs what they will need to prepare and by when.

Jean-Louis Mercy presented a project to explore data matching for social statistics. Eurostat is working specifically on data matching which it is defining as an approach specifically using probabilistic techniques and not exact record linkage. The feasibility study should produce methodological reports and potentially guidelines in two years time.

Michail Skaliotis presented the project to exploit the internet for social statistics.

The Task Force was pleased to see that Eurostat were taking internet developments on board, and made reference to other valuable insights, such as a paper from Essex University paper "Google It" which describes how employment statistics can be derived from searches on the word "job". There was speculation that the internet could some day replace official statistics. Eurostat's perspective was that this day had not yet come, and it was important to manage the process of transition towards a new model of data production.In this context, it is important to build synergies between official statistics and private source data owners.

On timing, the Chair indicated that Eurostat will present a first draft strategic approach for discussion at the March DSS based on the background paper to this meeting (revised in the light of today), in order to get reactions of all Member States. With a further revision, and following written consultation, Eurostat hopes to reach agreement with the DSS on a strategic approach by September 2011. TF Members were requested to further reflect and to provide additional ideas in writing by 11 February.Members were also encouraged to act as regional "leaders" and to canvas neighbouring MS for their ideas too. The Chair also indicated that a road map for the forthcoming MAP should be developed by July 2012.

The Chair thanked the participants and wished everyone a safe journey home.