26 September 2023

The Czech Statistical Office (CZSO) underwent in the beginning of March a regular assessment of compliance of its activities with principles of the European Statistics Code of Practice, so-called peer review. It follows from just released results that the CZSO is a highly respected professional institution that creates high-quality statistical information, is focused on users, and offers a motivating work environment that encourages innovation.

The Regulation on European Statistics sets out general principles of professional independence, impartiality, objectivity, reliability, and confidentiality of the statistical service. These principles are specified in more detail in the European Statistics Code of Practice, which is a cornerstone of the quality of the European Statistical System (ESS), the guarantor of the reliability of European statistics. The Code of Practice contains 16 principles; for each principle, there is a set of indicators, best practices, and standards providing guidance and benchmarks for assessing its implementation in daily practice.

Based on an extensive self-assessment questionnaire, an international team of experts assessed the implementation of the Code of Practice on the spot. “During five days, foreign experts met for an intensive working dialogue with 35 representatives of the CZSO and the State Statistical Service, the media, respondents, and other data users. They assessed whether the CZSO is impartial, objective, professionally independent in its activities, and whether it publishes its outputs fast enough and on dates announced in advance,” Petra Kuncová, Director of the Information Services Department of the CZSO, describes the course of the expert mission. The mission was also interested in how accessible and comprehensible the statistical outputs are and whether the CZSO maintains the protection of confidentiality of statistical data. 

A final report that has been just approved and published, is an outcome of the assessment. “The international assessment describes the CZSO as a highly respected, professional, and trustworthy institution, which has a clear strategic vision and a plan for its further development. It respects equal access to information, provides high-quality and user-oriented services, and continuously develops its presentation tools so that every user can get necessary information themselves,” Marek Rojíček, President of the Czech Statistical Office, says. The CZSO also actively uses innovative data collection techniques and has a sophisticated information system for production of statistics and actively uses a wide range of available data sources of the State. For employees, it is important that the CZSO successfully creates a high-quality work environment that supports professional growth, innovation, and work-life balance.   

The assessment also includes recommendations for further improvement, specifically, suggestions for the continuation of activities in the implementation of quality management, support for digitisation of the public administration, cooperation with the professional public and users, and in the area of coordination of the State Statistical Service. The CZSO will respond to the recommendations by proposing so-called improvement actions the implementation of which will be evaluated annually by Eurostat.
 

Contact:

Jan Cieslar
Spokesman of the CZSO
T (+420) 274 052 017 | M (+420) 604 149 190
E jan.cieslar@czso.cz | Twitter @statistickyurad