Statistics New Zealand undertakes a significant amount of the official statistics survey activity across government. The following information sets out the terms and conditions for government departments that choose to engage in sponsored surveys with Statistics New Zealand.
Purpose
The Statistics Act 1975 sets out the legal framework for all surveys, including sponsored surveys undertaken by Statistics New Zealand. Within this framework, this document elaborates the policies, terms and conditions that will govern all sponsored surveys undertaken by Statistics New Zealand.
Our mission
Statistics New Zealand’s mission is to lead New Zealand’s Official Statistics System to provide official statistics for government and the wider community that:
- are trusted, and of high integrity and quality
- can be accessed by all
- provide relevant and timely information on key aspects of New Zealand's economy, environment and society.
Both Statistics New Zealand and the sponsoring agency will work together to uphold and maintain Statistics New Zealand’s mission while undertaking a sponsored survey.
Statistics Act 1975
Statistics New Zealand complies with the Statistics Act 1975. The Act sets out the legislative framework for the production of all official statistics, including any surveys that Statistics New Zealand is sponsored to undertake. It outlines the Government Statistician's role in ensuring that all official statistics are produced using methodologies and practices that are statistically robust, and will provide outputs in which users can have confidence and which protect the confidentiality of individual respondent data.
To meet its responsibilities under the Act, Statistics New Zealand’s main roles are to:
- provide leadership for New Zealand's official statistics
- be the key contributor to the collection, analysis and dissemination of official statistics relating to New Zealand's economy, environment and society
- build and maintain trust in official statistics
- ensure that official statistics are of high integrity and quality and are equally available to all
- support statistical analyses and related statistical databases, while maintaining the integrity of the official statistics derived from that data
- maintain the confidentiality of respondent information
- ensure that respondent load is minimised.
Our values
The following core values are the guiding principles and behaviours for Statistics New Zealand. These values underpin the way we do business. By embracing these values, Statistics New Zealand will retain the trust of government and the wider community, and will achieve its mission and strategic goals:
- Professionalism
- Cooperation
- Security
- Integrity
The Statistics Act 1975 provides for the statutory independence of the Government Statistician and provides a framework within which Statistics New Zealand works to ensure the trust and confidence of government, businesses and the wider community. As a result, Statistics New Zealand achieves very good cooperation from the public when surveying segments of New Zealand’s society. This produces high response rates and enables the public audience to see Statistics New Zealand as authoritative and independent.
Statistics New Zealand exercises a commitment to best survey practice; this includes testing and piloting survey instruments. In addition, Statistics New Zealand has a commitment to formalising the edit and imputation systems used to process survey data, and to producing transparent quality measures to enable users to judge the usefulness of the statistical outputs for their specific needs.
Definitions
The following definitions have been paraphrased from the Statistics Act 1975.
Government Statistician
The Government Statistician is the chief executive of Statistics New Zealand and has such functions, duties and powers as are conferred or imposed on him by the Statistics Act 1975 or any other Act.
Joint collections
A joint collection is one for which Statistics New Zealand and the sponsoring agency have authority from the Minister of Statistics to jointly collect information from respondents, as provided for in the Statistics Act 1975. This includes exchanging data between the two parties, unless precluded by written instructions by respondents, as provided for in the Statistics Act 1975.
Minister
Any reference to the Minister is a reference to the Minister of Statistics.
Official Statistics
Official statistics are statistics derived by government departments from:
- statistical surveys
- administrative and registration records and other forms and papers with statistical analyses that are published regularly, or it is planned will be published regularly, or which could reasonably be published regularly.
Official statistics are one of the cornerstones of good government. Official statistics are statistics produced by government agencies to:
- monitor economic, social and environmental conditions
- develop, implement and monitor policies
- inform decision making, debate and discussion both within government and the wider community.
Sponsoring agency
For the purposes of this contract, the agency sponsoring Statistics New Zealand to undertake a survey will be known as ‘the sponsoring agency’.
Sponsored survey
A sponsored survey is a statistical survey undertaken by Statistics New Zealand that is funded by other government agencies. The survey could be partly or fully funded by the sponsoring agency. All sponsored surveys are conducted under the authority of the Statistics Act 1975.
Statistical survey
Statistical survey means survey of organisations or the public, where information is collected from some or all persons by a government department, and where the main purpose is processing and summarising the results using appropriate statistical procedures and publishing them.
The Crown Law Office (the Crown)
The Crown Law Office (the Crown) is the legal representative of the Government and the public service.
Tier 1 statistics
Tier 1 statistics are a defined set of key official statistics from across the state sector that provide performance measures of New Zealand. They are essential to government decision making and are of high public interest. Tier 1 statistics:
- are essential to central government decision making
- are of high public interest
- meet public expectations of impartiality and statistical quality
- require long-term continuity of the data
- provide international comparability or meet international statistical obligations.
Disclaimer
This and any subsequent agreements, if signed by the sponsoring agency and Statistics New Zealand, will form the agreement.