Commentary on Sections and Schedules Part 1: the Statistics Board Section 9 Definitions etc for official statistics
55.This section requires the Board to develop and maintain definitions, methodologies, classifications and standards for official statistics, and to promote their use in relation to official statistics. In addition, the Board may provide guidance and advice on these matters to statistical producers.
56.The Board would be expected to develop definitions, methodologies, classifications and standards in line with European Union (EU) and international guidance as appropriate. There are a number of standard definitions and classifications already in existence of the type the Board is expected to use and promote among producers of official statistics.(4) Examples include the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC)(5), the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC)(6), the European System of Accounts (ESA)(7) and the National Statistics Socio-Economic Classification (NS-SEC)(8). Guidance has also been published by ONS on preferred definitions and survey question designs (for example to define areas as ‘rural’ or ‘urban’, and on ethnicity information) for use in survey and census data collection.(9)