Introduction

This toolkit is intended to help statistical assessors review the areas of practice for the quality assurance arrangements of administrative data used to produce official statistics, during the Assessment of official statistics against the Code of Practice for possible designation as National Statistics.

The Authority is sharing this toolkit to help explain the nature of the regulatory standard that we are applying when we determine the suitability of practices used by statistics producers for the quality assurance of administrative data.

This guidance can support producers in making their critical judgments that administrative data continue to be suitable to be used in producing statistics, and in providing appropriate documentation for users.

The toolkit comprises:

1. Quality Management Actions – a model describing an approach that can be used by statistics producers to satisfy themselves and their users of the ongoing suitability of the administrative data
2. QA Matrix – which describes the statistical practices in four main areas for ensuring the suitability of the administrative data quality, with three different levels of assurance as some statistics require a more thorough and detailed approach than others
3. Risk/Profile Matrix – which can be used to inform decisions about the level of assurance that is appropriate given the characteristics of the statistics
4. Top tips and Helpful Guidance – additional guidance material to support judgments about the quality of administrative data Our assessors will:
   • Provisionally determine their view of the appropriate level of assurance required for a set of statistics.
   • Request from statistical producers:
     1. an explanation of their judgments of the required level of assurance for a set of statistics;
     2. evidence to support the rationale for these decisions;
     3. evidence of the actions, and the rationale for deciding upon those actions, that the producer has taken to achieve compliance with the chosen level of assurance; and
     4. evidence which demonstrates that the statistical producer has embedded practices for keeping its quality assurance arrangements under review.
   • Identify whether the submitted evidence complies with the Code of Practice.
   • For instances of non-compliance, require statistical producers to take action to meet the standard of the Code of Practice.