GSS Inter Administration Committee
The Inter Administration Committee (IAC) works in the context of the Concordat on Statistics between the United Kingdom Statistics Authority and the devolved administrations. It outlines the way in which the four countries (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) work together and cooperate on statistical matters.
IAC meets quarterly and its main responsibilities are:
- considering issues in relation to statistical matters across the UK system
- promoting policies, strategies and standards which facilitate the production of coherent and harmonised statistics across the administrations
- considering and resolving inter administration issues where they have not been resolved elsewhere
- considering UK government statistics needed for devolved purposes and devolved statistics needed for UK purposes
- consider user need for statistics at UK level and for comparable sub-UK statistics, while recognising that individual administrations will have specific requirements that need to be met
- considering international issues, including meeting international requirements
- considering ways to proactively raise the visibility of, and engagement with, devolved statistical matters both within and beyond the Government Statistical Service (GSS)
- liaising with, and supporting the work of, other GSS committees
- escalating issues as appropriate
- reviewing the Concordat every five years
The chair of this committee is the National Statistician. The membership includes Chief Statisticians of the devolved administrations, the Registrar General for Scotland, the deputy National Statistician for Population and Public Policy and the UK Statistical Authority’s Chief of Staff.
Purpose
The role of the Inter Administration Committee (IAC) is to promote coherence across the administrations of the UK and resolve inter-administration issues. The IAC works within the context of the Concordat on Statistics between the UK Government (including the UK Statistics Authority and Office for National Statistics) and each of the devolved administrations.
The Concordat outlines the ways in which the four countries work together in relation to the production of statistics, statistical standards and the statistics profession.
Responsibilities
The committee’s responsibilities are:
- considering issues in relation to statistical matters across the UK system
- promoting policies, strategies and standards which facilitate the production of coherent and harmonised statistics across the administrations
- considering and resolving inter administration issues where they have not been resolved elsewhere
- considering UK government statistics needed for devolved purposes and devolved statistics needed for UK purposes
- consider user need for statistics at UK level and for comparable sub-UK statistics, while recognising that individual administrations will have specific requirements that need to be met
- considering international issues, including meeting international requirements
- considering ways to proactively raise the visibility of, and engagement with, devolved statistical matters both within and beyond the Government Statistical Service (GSS)
- liaising with, and supporting the work of, other GSS committees
- escalating issues as appropriate
- reviewing the Concordat every five years
Membership
Membership of the committee will consist of:
- National Statistician (chair)
- Chief Statistician, Northern Ireland
- Chief Statistician, Scotland
- Registrar General for Scotland
- Chief Statistician, Wales
- Deputy National Statistician for Population and Public Policy
- Chief of Staff, UK Statistics Authority
- Head of Profession, Office for National Statistics
Heads of Profession, members of taskforces, working groups and other GSS groups and committees will be invited to attend as required.
Substitutes will not be permitted to attend committee meetings unless with express invitation from the chair.
Meetings
The committee will meet quarterly, with one meeting a year taking place in Cardiff, Belfast, Edinburgh and London. Room booking and refreshments will be the responsibility of the host administration. Secretariat will be provided by the Central Policy Secretariat.
Sub-committees
The Devolved Economic Statistics Co-ordination Group (DESC) will provide written reports to the committee. DESC may escalate any issues that cannot be resolved at a working level to the committee.
The minutes of DESC and IAC will be shared with each other.
The committee may commission DESC to investigate issues raised to the committee as needed.
Escalation
As per the arrangements set out in the Concordat, if issues in relation to statistical matters across the UK statistical system cannot be resolved by the parties directly involved, the National Statistician will attempt to broker agreement between the statistical producers in dispute.
In the unusual circumstance that an agreement cannot be reached, the National Statistician will raise issues with the relevant UK government department(s) and/or devolved administration(s) and then via the Joint Ministerial Committee Dispute, Avoidance and Resolution process if necessary.
Review
The committee will review the information on this page on an annual basis.