Trust vital to data gathering
New act updates Stats NZ’S powers, but also sets standards for transparency, writes Mark Sowden.
Today, the Data and Statistics Act 2022 comes into effect. As New Zealand’s biggest producer of statistics, it’s important Stats NZ has the right tools for the job.
One of the things we identified in recent years was that our legal framework was no longer fit for purpose. This muchneeded legislative overhaul is the first since 1975 – before the term data was in common use. Data is now increasingly important across government to allocate funding, and fuel digital public services.
As government statistician, my commitment to New Zealanders is to always operate with transparency. Stats NZ maintains strict records of data held in our integrated data infrastructure (IDI), including how this is being used. The IDI provides key insights that help to hold the government to account.
I recognise that we must earn and maintain Kiwis’ trust every day, which is why we place such a high premium on privacy and ethics. The new act keeps the same intent as the old – particularly the focus on statistical confidentiality – but also modernises our practices.
As recently as two weeks ago, anonomised data from the IDI was used to inform the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care. Over coming months, I will add to this repository other key data sources used for research and statistics.
The Data and Statistics Act places a particular emphasis on early and meaningful engagement with Māori. This is deeply important to me, and I intend to prioritise these conversations. Stats NZ will listen, learn and adapt our practices in line with these conversations.
Consider the role it played in the modelling, statistics and research that shaped our Covid-19 response. As government chief data steward, my role is to shape the government data system to make sure it’s fit for the modern era.
I released the government data strategy in 2020 to improve the data needed for research and statistics. One improvement is to recognise changes in the way statistics are produced. In 1975, most of our work involved surveys to produce official statistics. We’ll always survey people because it’s the only way to measure some important aspects of society and the economy. However, we’ve also been using administrative data more.
In order to function with accuracy and transparency, governments must keep detailed records. We call this byproduct of regular services ‘‘administrative data’’. Examples are during tax collection, benefit receipt, or school enrolment. During public consultation, people told us government should collect data once and reuse it, rather than repeatedly asking for the same information. We’ve heard that message.
Over the past two years, we have also had conversations with communities about our use of administrative data in the next census. I will continue this open dialogue.
Reuse of administrative data reduces the burden we put on people and businesses, and often lowers the cost of collection. It can provide more frequent and detailed insights, and can sometimes measure things more accurately than surveys. Our use of administrative data does carry risks, so the new act introduces ways to address these. I will be setting data standards to improve quality and coherence. There are also important provisions to ensure data is used ethically, safely, and in a culturally competent way.
But my most important considerations lie outside the act. I need to make sure people are comfortable with their data being used for research and statistics. Using data for research is clearly consistent with the Privacy Act 2020, but the public needs to be assured we can be trusted. To earn that trust we ensure data is used for public good, that we have robust security processes, and that transparency is baked into the process. We further commit to having an open discussion about how data is being used.
The new act contains clear and specific provisions to meet each of these requirements, and I’ll keep working hard to meet these high benchmarks.
High-quality data is key to an informed future: ki te kāhore he whakakitenga ka ngaro te iwi – without foresight or vision, the people will be lost. As we embark on this future together, it’s important that we use data safely and ethically. New Zealanders have my personal commitment on that.