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Treasury;Office for National Statistics

Answer

Mr. Nicholls: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the amount of time businesses are required to take providing data for the Office for National Statistics; and if he will examine ways of reducing it. [155750] Miss Melanie Johnson: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply. Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Patrick Nicholls, dated 2 April 2001: As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question on the amount of time businesses are required to take providing data for the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and if this can be reduced (155750). The ONS is extremely conscious of its responsibility to reduce the costs to business of complying with its surveys. Minimising the burden on suppliers of data is one of the ONS's key aims. The ONS produces an Annual Compliance Plan which charts the compliance costs by inquiry. This contains details of compliance-reducing initiatives that are either being undertaken, or are in the pipeline, the compliance target for the current year and the profile of compliance costs over a four year timescale. A copy of the Compliance Plan for 1999-2000 is available in the House of Commons Library. Regular reviews of surveys are carried out to examine wither there is a continuing need for them. Long term plans for bringing down compliance costs include greater use of administrative data, collecting data over the internet, developing commercial accounting software to include a statistics module and sharing the burden more equally among medium size firms.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

155750; 366 c51W

Session

2000-01

Subjects

Costs Business Office for National Statistics Questionnaires

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk