Reduction of Statistical Reporting Burden


The reduction in the statistical reporting burden is one of the strategic goals of Statistics Lithuania. As the demand for national and EU-wide statistics constantly increases, statisticians face a permanent problem – meeting users' needs by providing them with high-quality statistical information and at the same time reducing the statistical reporting burden for respondents. To solve this problem, a permanent working group on the statistical reporting burden was established in 2003. In close cooperation with business organisations, it makes proposals and actively works in the field of reducing the burden.

The activity has been developed in the following main directions:

  • Search for possibilities to reduce the number of questionnaires or to simplify them;

  • Promotion of more active use of administrative data sources;

  • Development of modern technological solutions for data collection;

  • Encouragement of better partnership with respondents.

The biggest reserve for the reduction in the statistical reporting burden is definitely the use of administrative data sources. However, it is not so easy to use administrative databases directly due to differences in the definitions of indicators, different reporting deadlines and technical problems. Nevertheless, Statistics Lithuania makes every effort in this field. Currently, 110 administrative sources from different institutions and organisations are used. Most of the data received are aggregated (71 out of 110). An interinstitutional database, maintained and updated by four institutions – State Tax Inspectorate, State Social Insurance Fund Board, Customs Departments, and Statistics Lithuania, – is the main source of administrative data used for the production of statistics. Data are also taken from registers such as the Register of Legal Entities, Residents' Register, Register of Farmers and others.

Cooperation with respondents has been constantly increasing. Feedback is promoted. All respondents are provided with statistical information upon their request, which they may express through business organisations or directly to Statistics Lithuania.

In order to distribute the reporting burden among respondents evenly, to decrease it or even to influence decision-making, it is necessary to measure it. The statistical reporting burden is measured in terms of time needed for a business to fill in statistical questionnaires. For this purpose, a question about the time used was added to all statistical questionnaires in 2006. Since then, those data are collected, the average time required to fill in every questionnaire is estimated, and the indicator of statistical reporting burden is calculated and published, which allows assessing the progress in this field.

 


Information on this webpage is not translated into English. 


Email daliute.kavaliauskiene@stat.gov.lt