Statistics-based Policy Evaluation

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Legal Authority

Statistics Act Article 12 Item 2 (Statistics-based Policy Evaluation)
Statistics Act Enforcement Ordinance Article 17 Item 2 (Procedures and Methods for Statistics-based Policy Evaluation)

Background

With the emergence of knowledge and information society, general consensus has been reached among the public that accurate statistics are essential to support decision making for all social entities including the government, businesses, and households.
While the government needs to lead efforts to develop and improve statistics required to support policies, it has been difficult to implement policies grounded in statistics due to lack of interest in statistics among line ministries.
Acknowledging the negative consequences (i.e. inefficiency and the public’s distrust of policies) of policies without their basis in statistics, 13 major statistical producers including Ministry of Strategy and Finance and Ministry of Health and Welfare and led by Ministry of Data and Statistics came together in January 2007 to come up with actions.
National Statistical Reform Strategy for development of social statistics was reported to and approved at the Cabinet Meeting in June 2007. The main agenda in this strategy was to introduce the statistics-based policy evaluation system.

Description

When the head of central government agency is planning on establishing new or amending existing policy by enacting and amending legislation,
Minister of the Ministry of Data and Statistics shall evaluate on the availability of statistical indicators necessary to support policy implementation and evaluation and feasibility of related statistical development and improvement plan.
Head of central government agency must produce the required statistical indicator based on the evaluation results, and use the indicators in policies.

Evaluation Process

**Evaluation Process**
1. Request pre-evaluation	Submit pre-evaluation application to MODS while discussing the policy with relevant agencies Required documents: application, description of enactment/amendment, before/after comparison table Statistical officer of the line ministry to pass on the paperwork to MODS If main evaluation is deemed necessary, skip pre-evaluation process.
2. Conduct pre-valuation and notify results	Process within 10 days of receiving pre-evaluation application If evaluation result is “recommended use of statistical indicators”, continue pre-evaluation until pre-announcement of enactment is expired.
3. Make appeal and conduct re-evaluation	Appeal deadline: Within 7 days of receiving pre-evaluation results Re-evaluation period: Within 7 days of receiving appeal
4. Request main evaluation	Submit by: Within 15 days of receiving pre-evaluation results Required documents: Main evaluation application, Plan for development/improvement of statistics If main evaluation is deemed necessary, skip pre-evaluation process.
5. Conduct main evaluation and notify results	Processing period: Until the expiry of pre-announcement of enactment. If evaluation is not finished by then, notify interim results. Issues to be resolved can be mediated between line ministry and MODS.
6. Make appeal and conduct re-evaluation	Appeal deadline: Within 7 days of receiving evaluation results If no agreement is reached with the relevant line ministry, matter is sent to the National Statistics Committee for deliberation.
7. Take action on evaluation outcomes	If main evaluation result is ‘non-agreed development/improvement of statistics’, the relevant legislation is submitted with MODS Minister comments to the Cabinet Meeting. Relevant line ministry must submit ‘Implementation Plan’ on ‘non-agreed development/improvement of statistics’ to the MODS Minister.