Session IV - Use of administrative data for data collection - Statistics Belgium

1. Session IV-Use of administrative data for data collection-Statistics Belgium Geneva, 31 October – 2 November

2. Agenda • Administrative simplification techniques • E-government • XBRL standard • Architecture • Main results • Lessons learned

3. Administrative simplification techniques • Administrative simplification techniques • Before 2008: • Gold-plating • Checking to what extent national surveys are in line with European statistical demands • Questioning fewer enterprises • Reducing sample size by using estimation procedures (threshold…) • Changing survey frequency • Reducing frequency • Avoiding double questioning • Information already known to public administrations is not asked for twice (administrative sources) • Such information is removed from the questionnaire • Using authentic sources

4. Administrative simplification techniques • Administrative simplification techniques • Before 2008: • Avoiding double questioning: • Conclusion • Variables should be deleted only when entire sections of the survey form can be deleted. • Randomly deleting variables from parts of a questionnaire should be avoided as much as possible.

5. Administrative simplification techniques • 3 questions needed to be answered: • How can we still delete variables from parts of a questionnaire when the information is already available in an administrative source? • How can we further reduce the administrative burden for enterprises? • How can we ensure greater consistency between data from administrative sources and survey data? • Solution = E-government • XBRL standard • Uploading information directly from the enterprise software • Pre-filled questionnaires

6. E-government • XBRL standard • Electronic reporting language based on XML (open standard) for the exchange of business data through the internet, limiting operations as much as possible

7. E-government • XBRL standard • Taxonomy • Xsd schema + 3 xml files (linkbases) • Xsd schema = type of dictionary in which elements are defined once • Linkbase: • Label linkbase: 4 languages • Reference linkbase: references • Presentation linkbase: tree structure of documents • Calculation linkbase (formula linkbase): order of operations • An Instance • Form with values

8. E-government • “Form-based” approach • Starting point: defining the content of the questionnaire, related definitions and explanations • Mapping needs to already existing taxonomies • External (national) consistency (NBB, Ministry of Finance) • Internal consistency

9. E-government

10. E-government

11. E-government • Mapping needs to administrative or statistical sources • Consistency between data from different public administrations or from different statistics • Investigating whether the information is directly available within the enterprise without requiring any transformation • Uploading information from the software • Taking into account data types

12. E-government • Investigating whether the information is directly available within the enterprise without requiring any transformation • Close cooperation with federations and software vendors • Federations: • what are the most common software tools? • Promoting XBRL upload • Software vendors • Information on software products (content) • How are data ‘presented’ in the software?

13. E-government • On the basis of mapping information, information from Federations and software vendors, we create the needed DTS • through a taxonomy editor or through SAS procedures • If it is possible to upload from software systems, the taxonomy is published on our website + the technical protocol and versioning • http://statbel.fgov.be/xbrl/ • Testing phase (about 3 months) for software vendors before the launch of the survey.

14. Architecture • Main functionalities • Based on the XBRL standard • Generic (all (non-) dimensional taxonomies) • Uploading instances directly from software systems • Manual encoding in automatically generated web pages • Instant validation • Business rules through XPath (no use of Formula Linkbase) • The SAS-procedure generates a txt-file with validation rules • PDF report • Standard ETL to export data into DWH • Benchmark reports

15. Architecture • Main functionalities • Pre-filling all data known (mapping) • Based on the mapping results, items to be pre-filled are identified • Pre-filled data are often: • Annual accounts (e.g. SBS) • Social Security (e.g. SES, Job vacancy…) • Data from other questionnaires (e.g. Producer Price Index) • Business register (all surveys) • Pre-filling possible through the creation of a plain file with data to be pre-filled • Independent of data source • Converting into a txt-file through the SAS-procedure • Architecture does not need to be modified if a new data source is available • Not only data from administrative sources are pre-filled, but also data from other surveys

16. Architecture

17. Main results

18. Lessons learned • Lessons learned • Absolutely necessary to share a unique identification number for enterprises • Upload: need to block pre-filled data • Push-on-the-button solution • Price of the solution • Stability of the questionnaire • Real simplification • Sharing a standard among different administrations • Consistency checks for pre-filled information • Promoting the use of a web survey or upload by sector federations