Statistics Estonia’s call elicited just 54 proposals

Last spring, Statistics Estonia called on enterprises to notify until the end of July, if Statistics Estonia had asked data about their activities that they had already submitted to the state in the previous 12 months. “Statistics Estonia has reduced the administrative burden of enterprises every year. To produce statistics, we use the data of over a hundred national databases, we pre‑fill questionnaires with data obtained from registers and we reduce the number of enterprises that have to submit data,” explained Mart Mägi, Director General of Statistics Estonia. “With this invitation, we wanted to reduce administrative burden even faster and map the databases or datasets that could be used for producing statistics but for some reason have not been in our focus of attention,” added Mr Mägi.

In the example of double data collection, Statistics Estonia asked enterprises to inform in which Statistics Estonia’s questionnaire a question covers data previously submitted to the data and which register or authority these data are submitted to. “The more detailed the example is, the sooner Statistics Estonia can adopt this data source,” said Mr Mägi.

In the call, it was also explained that double data collection does not apply in the cases when: 1) data submitted in the previous 12 months are pre-filled in a Statistics Estonia’s questionnaire; 2) the observed time period differs; 3) the detail level of data differs (e.g. based on the value of goods dispatched to the EU, it is not possible to determine the commodity chapter or quantity); 4) the definition differs (e.g. gross monthly wages and actual disbursement are different in meaning).

Complete or partial re-requesting for data was identified in the case of four questionnaires.

1) The questionnaire “Energy“. Enterprises pointed out that the monthly quantities of electricity produced are submitted automatically to Elering.

Statistics Estonia negotiated with Elering and reached an agreement to get data from them. Currently, data are being analysed, in order to prepare for replacing the data source.

2) The questionnaire “Prices of Warehousing and Support Activities for Transportation”. Enterprises pointed out that for submitting the reference month data, they have to re‑enter the previous month’s data each time. These data have already been submitted as the reference month data.  

The column “Unit price in the previous month, euros” is necessary in the case of enterprises that have added new services or whose services have changed during the year. Statistics Estonia will find a technical solution, so that enterprises that have already submitted the price of service would not have to fill in the data field again within a year.

3) The questionnaire “Research and Development“. Public sector enterprises pointed out that the questionnaire contains some data they submit to the State Shared Service Centre with balance sheet accounts.

Statistics Estonia cooperates with the State Shared Service Centre and analyses the composition of balance sheet accounts. In the case of data suitability, we will use these to pre-fill the questionnaire or capture the data directly into the system.

4) The Newly Registered Enterprise Questionnaire. Enterprises pointed out that data on the newly registered enterprises are available in the Commercial Register and the Estonian Tax and Customs Board.

It is important for Statistics Estonia that the economic activity of an enterprise would be correctly identified and that the enterprise would be included only in the surveys of its economic activity. When registering with the Commercial Register, the head of the enterprise could make a mistake when choosing the economic activity of the enterprise from the Estonian Classification of Economic Activities (EMTAK) or adjust the activities of the enterprise after its registration according to the market situation. Enterprises update data in the Commercial Register just once a year based on their annual report. Therefore, Statistics Estonia will continue to specify the economic activities of new enterprises, asking enterprises registered at least two months prior for information on their products and services, while continuously looking for opportunities to eliminate the questionnaire by adopting new data sources.

Enterprises also commented that the Estonian Health Insurance Fund and the Estonian Institute for Economic Research collect data that they have already submitted to a national authority.

In addition, enterprises mentioned Statistics Estonia’s questionnaires “EKOMAR”, “Wages and salaries and labour force”, “Wage gap”, “Economic activity”, “Intrastat” and “Beekeeping”, but in the case of these, the data are not being requested repeatedly as data submitted to the state during the previous 12 months are pre-filled for the enterprise in the Statistics Estonia’s questionnaire, while the observed time period, detail level of data or definition differs.

Mr Mägi would like to thank the enterprises that responded to the call and shared their observations with Statistics Estonia. “The strongest foundation of the smart state of the next decade and data-based decision-making are data that are characterised by quality, completeness and timeliness,” said Mr Mägi. “We have to build capacity in the state to reuse data reasonably and make sure that one dataset is not collected multiple times.”

It is still possible to inform about double data collection on Statistics Estonia’s website (only in Estonian).