National Statistics in Slovenia Annual Report 2014 www.stat.si/eng National Statistics in Slovenia Annual Report 2014 www.stat.si/eng Authors: Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Public Legal Records and Related Services, Bank of Slovenia, Ministry of Finance, National Institute of Public Health, Employment Service of Slovenia and Pension and Disability Insurance Institute of Slovenia. Collected and edited by Ana Novak Translated by Boris Panic Publication available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/publications Issued and printed by the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, Ljubljana, Litostrojska 54 – © SURS – Use and publication of the data is allowed provided the source is acknowledged – ISSN 1408-9475 Table of contents Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 5 1 Achievements of national statistics in implementing basic objectives set in the Medium-Term Programme of Statistical Surveys 2013–2017 ............................................... 6 1.1 Increasing the use of statistical data among users .................................................................... 6 1.2 Preserving the confidence of all stakeholders and increasing the recognition of national statistics .................................................................................................................................. 11 1.3 Implementing the activity of national statistics according to the cost-benefit principle .......... 17 2 Achievements of national statistics in 2014 by subject-matter areas .................................. 21 2.1 Indicators ................................................................................................................................ 21 2.2 Systems of accounts ................................................................................................................ 22 2.2.1 Economic and social development .................................................................................. 22 2.2.2 Environmental sustainability ........................................................................................... 25 2.3 Basic statistics ........................................................................................................................ 26 2.3.1 Business ......................................................................................................................... 26 2.3.2 People and the society .................................................................................................... 32 2.3.3 Environmental, agricultural and other sectoral statistics ................................................. 41 Annex ................................................................................................................................. 47 A. Statistical legislation adopted in 2014 ..................................................................................... 47 B. Agreements and technical protocols signed by SURS in 2014................................................. 49 List of abbreviations ............................................................................................................. 50 The Statistical Council of the Republic of Slovenia at its 49th regular session on 8 April 2015 discussed the Report on the Implementation of the Annual Programme of Statistical Surveys for 2014 and adopted the following DECISION »The Statistical Council of the Republic of Slovenia at its 49th regular session on 8 April 2015, under Item 5 of the agenda, took note of the Report on the Implementation of the Annual Programme of Statistical Surveys 2014.« Dr Anuška Ferligoj President of the Statistical Council of the Republic of Slovenia Introduction 2014 was a year of important events for Slovene national statistics. The most important was definitely the peer review assessing the compliance of the Slovene national statistical system with the European Statistics Code of Practice, which took place at SURS in the autumn of 2014 and was done by three independent experts, so-called peer reviewers. They reviewed the existing documents and then in five days met SURS’s top management and experts as well as various groups of stakeholders (representatives of authorised producers, users, data providers, the media and the academic community). After the in-depth review they prepared a report in which they pointed out that SURS’s operation is mostly in line with the Code of Practice and emphasised that in recent years compliance has been improved: the structure of the national statistical system is in line with the needs, the National Statistics Act is a strong legislative basis and determines the role of authorised producers of national statistics, there are no doubts regarding professional independence, the mandate for data collection is well-defined and enables wide use of administrative sources, statistical programmes are prepared in cooperation with authorised producers, coordination of the statistical system takes place at different levels, SURS has set up good relationships with users and strong ties with the academic community, it operates according to quality principles (in line with the given commitment) and employs highly-qualified professionals. Recommendations for improvement give guidelines for improving SURS’s financial, human and IT resources, strengthening the coordination of the system of national statistics, more intensive cooperation with external experts, implementing improvements in the release calendar, further cooperation with the media, further development of microdata management, amending the National Statistics Act, improving the use of information from quality reports, development of indicators measuring the response burden, and improving the authorised producers’ compliance with the Code of Practice. Based on the mentioned report, SURS prepared an action plan for improvements and will be implementing various activities in line with the plan and report about them to Eurostat annually. In 2014, SURS celebrated the 70th anniversary of its operation. At the jubilee it issued a special publication entitled 70 Years of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, in which it presented work done in the last decade. 2014 also marked a decade since Slovenia’s accession to the European Union. On the occasion SURS issued a publication entitled This is Slovenia – Our First Decade in the EU. Wishing to get even closer to its users, in 2014 SURS designed and issued a new, more modern type of publication entitled Stat’o’book, which replaced two former publications, the Statistical Yearbook of the Republic of Slovenia and Slovenia in Figures. Stat’o’book contains topical data presented with numerous infographics and other graphical presentations supplemented with short commentaries. Stat’o’book was well received by the users and SURS will upgrade the publication of data in the form of infographics and interactive tools and strive to bring official statistics even closer to young people. This was pointed out by young participants of the 24th Statistical Day Conference entitled The Young about Statistics - Statistics about the Young, which took place at Brdo on 22 October 2014. I would like to thank everybody who cooperated in preparing this document – authorised producers of national statistics and SURS’s employees – for a job well done. Genovefa Ružic Director-General of the Statistical Office 1 Achievements of national statistics in implementing basic objectives set in the Medium-Term Programme of Statistical Surveys 2013–2017 This chapter presents development achievements of national statistics in Slovenia in implementing basic objectives set in the Medium-Term Programme of Statistical Surveys 2013–2017. These objectives were: increasing the use of statistical data among users, preserving the confidence of all stakeholders in the quality of national statistics in Slovenia and increasing its recognition, and implementing the activity according to the cost-benefit principle. 1.1 Increasing the use of statistical data among users SURS’s Stat’o’book in the social media SURS is constantly adapting its products and services to the changing user needs. Stat’o’book1 is the new SURS publication that replaces the previous Statistical Yearbook of the Republic of Slovenia and Slovenia in Figures. In a modern way – with infographics and other graphical presentations – it presents selected topical data supplemented with short commentaries. Both the publication and the infographics it contains were well accepted by the users, enterprises, the media and the general public. SURS’s presence on Twitter recognisable and well-received SURS is aware of the importance of being present on social media; as one of the first statistical offices it has been present on Twitter since 2009. In the second half of 2014 SURS increased its presence on Twitter. For example, in the last quarter of 2014 it published almost twice as many tweets as a quarter earlier as Twitter proved to be an effective tool for promoting SURS and statistics at the Statistical Day, press conferences, release of new publications, and special days and holidays. At the same time, SURS started to retweet other users’ tweets referring to SURS’s data. SURS increased the number of tweets with pictures and infographics; they were also noticed the most by the users. SURS’s tweets with pictures and infographics were the most retweeted by the users; and among them the most retweeted was the tweet with the Stat’o’book infographic entitled What happened on an average day in Slovenia in 2013? The two-way communication with the users improved. SURS has positive experience with the users since they are impressed by SURS’s rapid response and open communication. 1 See: http://www.stat.si/doc/pub/Statobook.pdf (11. 2. 2015). SURS celebrated its 70th anniversary In 2014, SURS celebrated the 70th anniversary of its operation. At the jubilee it issued a special publication entitled 70 Years of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, in which it presented work done in the last decade. SURS market the jubilee with a special logo on its website, in all its publications and documents communicating with the external public. SURS’s premises were adorned by posters with slogans presenting SURS’s characteristics prepared by an in-house group. 2014 also marked a decade since Slovenia’s accession to the European Union. On the occasion SURS issued a publication entitled This is Slovenia – Our First Decade in the EU. Statistical Day 2014 focused on young people On 22 October 2014 everybody using statistics at work or study or for whom statistics is simply interesting or fun attended the 24th statistical conference, which was in 2013 renamed Statistical Day and was held for the second time at Brdo pri Kranju. The theme The Young about Statistics - Statistics about the Young drew a lot of interest. Discussion took place in two round tables. Participants exchanged opinions, criticism as well as praise about SURS operation, its products and data. The lively discussion focused on determining together what SURS can change and improve to prepare statistical data in a way and to the extent necessary for appropriate planning and implementation of youth policy measures and what SURS can do to draw national statistics closer to young people and make it more custom-made for them. Conference participants celebrated 70 years of national statistics in Slovenia and SURS and on this occasion presented a special video prepared by SURS’s employees and entitled 70 years of Statistical Stories. At the end of the Statistical Day the 2014 awards of the Statistical Society of Slovenia were given to Dr Janez Stare (the Blejec award) and the editorial board of the last page of Delo newspaper (for the excellence of statistical reporting by the media).2 Activities for modernizing SURS’s website In 2014, SURS finished the first phase of upgrading its website. Within the upgrade the metadata system, applications for preparing releases and current data, and the document system were thoroughly revised and upgraded. The appearance (design) and organisation of contents on the website were also completely changed. The central contents of the website are shown dynamically and are linked in the metadata repository, which will significantly improve the user experience. The modernised website was launched on 2 March 2015 (its beta (test) version was available from 22 January 2015 on). STAGE interactive web mapping application Spatial statistics are the basis for effective implementation of local, regional and cohesion policies. Due to large importance of geostatistical data, in 2014 SURS focused a lot of attention on setting up a comprehensive system for disseminating spatial statistics with the emphasis on statistical data 2 More about the 2014 Statistical Day:http://www.stat.si/statisticnidnevi/Default.aspx?lang=enl (5. 3. 2015). visualisation. With the support of good data sources, SURS upgraded the STAGE (STAtistics and GEography) application3 and put it into production. STAGE enables presentation, dissemination and transfer of geospatial statistical data in line with specifications for network services from the INSPIRE Directive. By setting up the application, SURS follows the objective of providing the largest possible amount of timely and high-quality spatial statistical data. SURS offered to authorised producers of national statistics the possibility to include their national statistics data in the STAGE application; STAGE already contains data from the NIJZ (prescription drugs), the ZRSZ (unemployed persons, recipients of unemployment benefits) and the ZPIZ (recipients of pensions from compulsory insurance). In addition to the implementation of the mentioned application, SURS implemented many other activities related to setting up a comprehensive system for dissemination of spatial statistics, particularly current updating of indicators and data appropriate for various forms of spatial data dissemination. These data are also available to all users on the SI-STAT Data Portal. NIJZ set up a health data portal In 2014, the NIJZ set up a health data portal, which is available on the NIJZ website4. The NIJZ thus provided to its users greater accessibility and much better selection of health and health care data. The portal contains data prepared by the NIJZ, many of them available also at the level of statistical regions. In addition, it contains links to some important sets of indicators related to health and published by other institutions (life expectancy, environment and health indicators, cancer morbidity and mortality indicators, well-being indicators, expenditure and financing of the health care system). The portal also includes some data (e.g. medical devices) prepared by other institutions that have so far not been published. All data on the portal are equipped with methodological explanations and contacts for additional information. The portal is prepared on the technical platform PC-Axis. The users who are familiar with the SI-STAT data portal can use their knowledge and experience on the NIJZ portal. User-friendly access to metadata In 2014, SURS continued to transform methodological explanations into the new standard structure adopted in 2013; by the end of 2014, 90% of explanations had been published on SURS’s website. 5 SURS implemented the Horizontal and Vertical Integration project; the project that took place between December 2012 and December 2014 was financed by European funds. One of the project activities was harmonisation of reference metadata at SURS. Within the project SURS prepared a technical solution for the prototype database of reference metadata and the application for metadata editing and the necessary outputs that will meet the requirements of SURS and Eurostat. Regular quality reporting As regards quality measurement, standard quality reports (in Slovene only6) on the quality of implementing statistical surveys have become a well-established method of quality reporting. They are prepared for individual surveys every five years. In 2014, SURS was preparing updated versions of standard quality reports and quality reports for those surveys for which such reports had not yet been prepared. Standard quality reports are regularly supplemented by annual quality reports offering the users rapid insight into the quality indicators. Such a review of the quality level is necessary when the 3 See: http://www.stat.si/statweb/en/mainnavigation/interactive/maps-and-geodata/atlas (23. 3. 2015). 4 See: https://podatki.nijz.si/pxweb/sl/NIJZ%20podatkovni%20portal/, available only in Slovene (24. 2. 2015). 5 See: http://www.stat.si/statweb/en/mainnavigation/methods-and-classifications/methodological-explanations (23. 3. 2015). 6 See: http://www.stat.si/statweb/en/mainnavigation/methods-and-classifications/quality-reports (23. 3. 2015). measures to improve the quality are introduced; at the same time reports contain important information for the users. Access of researchers to microdata For more effective decision-making regarding requests for access to microdata, SURS issued a guideline on the management of microdata for scientific and research purposes and for analytical purposes, which regulates in detail and comprehensively the management of microdata, the procedure for obtaining access to microdata (including the determination of the content of all applications, statements and contracts), persons responsible for microdata management, general rules on access and the use of microdata in the secure room or via remote access via the Internet. For meeting the growing needs of researchers for microdata, particularly via remote access, the remote access server was expanded and modernised. The new server is based on modern infrastructure, is more advanced and enables effective use for several users at the same time. Based on the cooperation agreement with the Social Science Data Archives (ADP), activities were implemented for further promotion of microdata of national statistics and preparation of data for learning and research purposes: microdata and metadata for microsimulation model data and the data from the series of Labour Force Surveys (LFS) available at SURS were prepared. Cooperation with users via the Statistical Council of the Republic of Slovenia and statistical advisory committees In 2014, the Statistical Council of the Republic of Slovenia7 met twice at regular sessions; it discussed proposals of documents related to the annual programme of statistical surveys and took note of some SURS’s activities, e.g. information security, work of statistical advisory committees, and other information such as revision of the European System of Accounts 2010, web cartographic application and dissemination of statistical data (STAGE), etc. One correspondence session was held regarding the change of the 2014 Annual Programme of Statistical Surveys. In 2014, 23 statistical advisory committees8 with around 400 external members were active at SURS. Fifteen meetings were organised at which many initiatives, recommendations and opinions of members were presented, for example initiatives for further data collection and increasing the availability, accessibility and quality of data, establishment of a working group, presentation of a certain content at the next meeting, etc. Based on the minutes of each meeting, the Director­General’s Board takes note of the adopted positions and initiatives and monitors their fulfilment. At the meetings participants were informed about implemented and planned tasks from the field of work of each advisory committee; in addition, they were informed about the participating institutions (regarding the use of statistical data, presentation of projects) and trained in general contents prepared for them by SURS’s representatives (e.g. on measurement and reporting of quality in statistics, use of big data and transmission of open data, web cartographic application STAGE, data security and protection at SURS, statistical literacy and methods of increasing user understanding of national statistics, data weighting, etc.). 7 See: http://www.stat.si/statweb/en/mainnavigation/about-us/system-of-national-statistics/statistical-council (23. 3. 2015). 8 See: http://www.stat.si/statweb/en/mainnavigation/about-us/system-of-national-statistics/statistical-advisory-committees (23. 3. 2015). Cooperation in the European Statistical System and the European System of Central Banks In 2014, SURS was actively cooperating within the European Statistical System (ESS) at all levels of cooperation and decision-making within the system: in discussions about the development of the ESS and other strategic issues of European statistics that took place in the European Statistical System Committee (ESSC), the ESSC Partnership Group, the Directors Groups for individual fields of statistics and various working groups organised by Eurostat. SURS was actively involved in preparing the new vision of the European Statistical System (Vision 2020), which was confirmed by the ESSC in May 2014 as the framework of further development of ESS by 2020. SURS was also involved in a special working group for preparing the proposal of the strategy for implementing this vision. SURS was effectively involved in the procedures of preparation, coordination and adoption of European legislation from the field of statistics both within Eurostat working bodies and within the Council Working Party on Statistics. The Working Party focused a lot of attention on the proposal of the regulation amending the regulation on European statistics and in December 2014 successfully finished discussing the proposal. In 2014, too, the Bank of Slovenia (BS) successfully cooperated in the Statistics Committee of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB), its working groups on government finance statistics, monetary and financial statistics, external statistics, general economic statistics, euro area accounts, securities statistics and statistical information system as well as occasional thematic groups. In 2014, statistical cooperation strengthened in setting up the data basis for the needs of the single supervisory mechanism.9 Efforts of the ESCB for setting up the single system of collecting data for the needs of banking supervision and statistics (Task Force on European reporting framework) continue. In addition, in 2014 the BS cooperated in Eurostat’s working groups on financial accounts and government finance statistics, balance of payments, foreign direct investment ("FDI network") and FATS. Cooperation involved also the Committee on Monetary, Financial and Balance of Payments Statistics (CMFB) and the European Statistical Forum (ESF), in which strategic issues of European statistics are coordinated. Representatives of the BS Statistics Department exchanged their experience and positions with their colleagues from central banks of Central European countries within regular cooperation in this area. In the area of monetary and financial statistics the BS offered professional assistance to representatives of the National Bank of Macedonia. International cooperation As regards international multilateral cooperation, in 2014 SURS was actively participating in the work of the Conference of European Statisticians at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe and in the work of the United Nations Statistical Commission and various specialised UN agencies, funds and programmes. SURS was also active in the OECD Committee on Statistics and was currently fulfilling statistical commitments towards this organisation. SURS is aware that without cooperation in the international and European community there is no quality statistics, so it strived to use the limited resources as effectively as possible: presence in various events was carefully planned and positions regarding the most important topics discussed at these events were coordinated at SURS and at the level of national statistics. SURS was strictly enforcing the good practice that people participating in these events regularly prepare reports, which are then available to all employees and thus ensured the transfer of knowledge and information obtained at international events within SURS and the system of national statistics. 9 See: https://www.bankingsupervision.europa.eu/home/html/index.en.html (24. 2. 2015). SURS’s representatives participated in 271 international events and events within the EU. On the other hand, SURS organised or helped organise 22 international events in Slovenia. Within bilateral cooperation SURS offered professional assistance to statistical offices of BiH (R&D statistics), Kosovo (agricultural census), Croatia (telephone interviewing, and statistical confidentiality and access to microdata), Turkey (labour statistics and EDP notification tables), Serbia (statistical population register) and Macedonia (business services). Within the IPA 2012 programme, SURS successfully implemented a five-month training programme for a representative of the Statistical Office of Serbia in the field of environment statistics, a three-an-a-half-month training programme for a representative of the State Statistical Office of Macedonia in the field of GIS and a three-an-a-half-month training programme for a representative of the Croatian Bureau of Statistics in the field of statistical confidentiality. 1.2 Preserving the confidence of all stakeholders and increasing the recognition of national statistics Strengthened coordination with authorised producers of national statistics Cooperation between SURS and authorised producers of national statistics takes place at two levels: the subject-matter level and the infrastructure level. SURS’s subject-matter departments cooperate with individual authorised producers in common implementation of some tasks from the Annual Programme of Statistical Surveys, in coordinating other statistical tasks in view of the subject-matter connections between institutions, in coordinating legislative proposals, etc. Cooperation in infrastructure involves the preparation of strategic documents of national statistics (Annual Programme of Statistical Surveys, Medium-Term Programme of Statistical Surveys), implementing the principles of the European Statistics Code of Practice, cooperation in the Methodological Council, cooperation at the sessions of the Statistical Council, signing of agreements between institutions, cooperation in education and training, cooperation at workshops for representatives of authorised producers of national statistics from the field of specific methodological knowledge, data presentation and interpretation, cooperation in disseminating strategic international documents and harmonising positions, cooperation in using SURS’s remote access infrastructure, etc. SURS and authorised producers of national statistics hold regular bilateral meetings, and occasional meetings with all institutions. In 2014, SURS was discussing with authorised producers the common dissemination of statistical data (common release calendar and dissemination of data in the cartographic application STAGE) and the quality in statistical organisations (particularly the implementation of the European Statistics Code of Practice). Peer review assessing the compliance with the European Statistics Code of Practice Within the European Statistical System, in 2014 and 2015 the second round of peer reviews of national statistical systems regarding the compliance with the European Statistics Code of Practice is taking place. SURS was aware of the importance of a harmonised approach in this area within the office, so it established an internal working group with experts from various areas that takes care of coordinating the activities regarding the implementation of the peer review. In December 2013 statistical offices of the ESS were asked to fill in a detailed self-assessment questionnaire. The questionnaire contained over 400 questions referring to all principles of the Code of Practice as well as the implementation of the coordination role in the national statistical system and SURS’s integration in the European Statistical System. The questionnaires were sent to Eurostat by the end of April 2014 and together with some other strategic documents of statistical offices represented the basic documentation for independent peer reviewers. The peer review included a review of the entire national statistical system in the part producing European statistics. A simplified self-assessment questionnaire was filled in by the NIJZ.10 The peer review at SURS took place between 29 September and 3 October 2014, when SURS was visited by peer reviewers and the Eurostat observer. During that time peer reviewers met SURS’s top management, SURS’s experts for individual areas relevant to the Code of Practice, young SURS’s employees and NIJZ representatives. To obtain as unbiased external opinion as possible on SURS’s operation from various stakeholders, they also met separately with representatives of users, data providers, the media and the academic community. SURS’s peer review team with peer reviewers: Jagdev Singh Virdee, Zsuzsanna Kovacs, Andreja Hocevar, Polonca Štrekelj, Tina Steenvoorden, Karmen Hren, Genovefa Ružic, Tomaž Smrekar, Hallgrímur Snorrason, Tatjana Novak and Jaume Garcia Villar. 10 In addition to the NIJZ, European statistics is also produced by the Bank of Slovenia; however, the methodology prescribes that national banks are not included in the peer review since in their work they must follow the Public Commitment on European Statistics by the ESCB. Based on the documentation and visit, peer reviewers prepared the final report on the compliance of the Slovene statistical system with the Code of Practice, which was published in early January 2015 on the Eurostat website11. The report describes the current situation regarding the compliance with the Code of Practice and gives 17 recommendations for areas in which the Slovene statistical system should make improvements. Recommendations of peer reviewers refer to the following areas: improvement of financial resources, coordination of the system of national statistics, strengthened cooperation with external experts, changes in the release calendar, further cooperation with the media and development in the field of microdata management, studying the possibility of amending the National Statistics Act, better use of information from quality reports, development of indicators for measuring the response burden and some improvements of compliance with the Code of Practice by authorised producers. Based on the report, SURS will prepare in accordance with the prescribed methodology an action plan for improvements with which it will improve its compliance with the Code of Practice in the coming years. Improvement actions will also be published. Within the excessive government deficit report – EDP Upstream dialogue visit by Eurostat, AJPES received a recommendation regarding the compliance with the Code of Practice, which it realised in 2014. AJPES determined the compliance with the Code of Practice in its strategic documents, which are publicly available on the AJPES website. NIJZ obtained ISO 9001 certificate In 2014, the NIJZ obtained the ISO 9001 certificate for “implementing public health services: monitoring health care, social medicine, health promotion and the prevention of addiction, epidemiology, hygiene and health ecology with assessing environmental factors, and training”, which was the result of extensive work and preparations, and documenting work processes. As part of the preparations, the NIJZ defined the process of “data collection and dissemination”, which details all procedures of data collection and processing and defines all roles in the process. The process also includes the basic principles of the European Statistics Code of Practice where relevant. Improving information security of the data After the adoption of the comprehensive information security policy in 2011, the development of the information security system continued in 2014. SURS set up the production of the information solution for access management, which enables management of access in line with the information security policy, provides updated access record and control of access to personal data without the use of paper authorisations. Before the setting up of the production SURS prepared training for subject-matter and technical administrators. SURS also prepared the concept of upgrading the information solution for access management, which will enable regulation of classifying information sources at SURS in line with the information security policy, and performed the annual review of information security, which showed that the rules on procedures for managing security events need to be changed. Managing the risk of information system failure Within guidelines for managing information and communication technology, in 2014 SURS set up the system of procedural decision-making at the introduction of new information solutions and software tools together with the guidelines of introducing open source tools. The guidelines describe key policies for achieving comprehensive and effective development, maintenance and management of information and communication infrastructure and technology. In addition to the architecture of 11 Peer review report on the compliance of the Slovene statistical system with the Code of Practice: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/64157/4372828/2015-SI-report/f71d3aa1-eb14-4127-b25a-c5e7a3dfc856. SURS’s information system, the guidelines cover management and development of applicative and data architecture, management and control of information and communication infrastructure together with management of the risk of breakdown of the information system and providing availably (99.3% in 2014) and security of ICT systems. Expanding the role and activity of SURS’s Methodological Council In 2014, the Methodological Council met four times. It discussed the methodologies of nine surveys on agriculture, labour market, level of living, education and energy. The Methodological Council supports SURS in its efforts for more friendly methods of data collection for reporting units (e-reporting) and rationalisation of data collection by using administrative sources. In two of the discussed surveys SURS plans to substitute direct data collection with the use of administrative data, in three it changed the method of data collection by introducing e-reporting and in one case from a combination of fieldwork and phone interviewing it turned to phone interviewing only. In the last case the Methodological Council recommended considering the possibility of using administrative sources and introduction of a web survey, which SURS will take into account in the next survey implementation. With changed methods of data collection, the Methodological Council recommends appropriate testing of questionnaires, improvement of instructions for completing the questionnaires, caution in communicating regarding breaks in time series and improvement of methodological guidelines. The Council took note of methodological solutions brought by the introduction of ESA 2010 in national accounts statistics. It discussed and confirmed three proposals for termination: election statistics, public social welfare institutors and labour market policy. SURS thus rationalised work in the country since these data will still be available to users but at other institutions (DVK, MDDSZ and ZRSZ). In their report on the compliance of the Slovene statistical system with the Code of Practice, peer reviewers assessed the establishment and work of the Methodological Council at SURS as an innovative practice. Optimisation and modernisation of the processes of interviewing persons and households In 2014, SURS started to modernise and optimise the procedures for interviewing persons and households. Based on experience, knowledge and activities related to implementation of web interviewing of persons at SURS for the Survey on the Careers and Mobility of Doctorate Holders (ŠOL-R-DR 2012), SURS set up a project of Web interviewing persons. The purpose and objectives of the project are closely integrated with the efforts to optimize and modernize the processes of interviewing persons and households. The project focuses on developing procedures, materials and the prototype IT solution which with enable the transition to data collection in surveys on persons and households with CAWI. The project is composed of four interrelated phases. Phase 1 is determination of the environment, procedures, instructions, contents and the prototype solution for implementing the pilot Consumer Survey (testing) and subsequent introduction of CAWI at SURS, Phase 2 is implementation of the pilot Consumer Survey with web and/or combined method, Phase 3 is evaluation of the implementation of the pilot Consumer Survey and Phase 4 is preparation of final solutions. In 2014, Phase 1 and Phase 2 were fully implemented, while Phase 3 was partly implemented. Modernisation of notification letters and leaflets in the surveys of persons, households and agricultural holdings In line with the need to modernise and strengthen the recognition of SURS with the help of materials for communication with respondents and based on the discussion at the professional conference about the combined method of data collection in surveys of persons, households and agricultural holdings, SURS started with gradual introduction of modernised notification letters and leaflets in the surveys of persons, households and agricultural holdings (HBS and EU-SILC). It established an interdepartmental working group for implementing activities related to the modernisation of leaflets. Standard templates and recommendations were prepared, which survey managers should take into account in preparing the notification letter. Introduction of eSTAT services into new statistical surveys The steering group for e-reporting at SURS monitors monthly the implementation of e-reporting and directs work on introducing e-reporting in surveys. In 2014, SURS successfully introduced and implemented e-reporting in 17 statistical surveys. In addition to completing web questionnaires, SURS integrated in the eSTAT system additional possibility of manual coverage of the data files, which expanded the possibility of introducing e-reporting to more statistical surveys and the possibility of e-reporting for analytical units when the reporting unit reports data on events (e.g. divorces). For these two methods of e-reporting user guidelines were prepared that can be found on the eSTAT website12. A new method of obtaining data from business entities (computer assisted telephone interviewing – CATI) was introduced and successfully integrated with e-reporting (mix-mode WEB-CATI). Units that do not complete the web questionnaire by a deadline are contacted by SURS by phone. In this case it is no longer possible to enter the data on printed questionnaires. For such a combined method of data collection, it was necessary to redefine the procedures (organizational, technical and process). At the end of 2014, SURS signed an agreement with DATALAB on developing a technical solution for automatic preparation of data for statistical surveys by enterprises. For business entities to be able to transmit such data via the eSTAT system, the appropriate update of the eSTAT solution started to be prepared, which will enable sending of these data to SURS. In this way business entities will be less burdened with the preparation of data for selected SURS’s surveys. Communication with business entities Due to the introduction of e-reporting, in communication with business entities SURS developed new elements of the standard method of informing units about the survey. In 2014, SURS prepared a set of standardised templates to be used in communication with business entities in view of the method of data collection from them. SURS also developed a template for schematic presentation of material serving as support to internal SURS’s processes. In 2014, SURS updated the document which envisages standardization of printed questionnaires. Questionnaire design elements, standard parts of the text on page 1 of the questionnaire and data necessary for establishing contact have been standardised. A single entry point for business entities, i.e. the Contact Centre, has been operating at SURS since 2013. It was established to simplify access of business entities to SURS regarding statistical questionnaires and to partly reduce their cost of telephone communication. Information on the free telephone number and e-mail address is stated on all questionnaires and other material for communication with observation and reporting units. By calling this free telephone number one can get general, subject-matter and technical assistance in electronic data reporting. Work of the Contact Centre is supported by the eSTAT Help Desk information solution. In providing technical assistance to business entities with the introduction of e-reporting at SURS, until July 2014 the Contact Centre of the Slovenian Government (EKC)13 cooperated in Level 1 of technical 12 See: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/glavnanavigacija/oddajanje-podatkov/podjetja/estat (2. 3. 2015). 13 See: http://www.ekc.gov.si/ (24. 2. 2014). support to users of the e-reporting for business entities on the basis of the framework agreement on providing such assistance signed in 2012. Due to lack of resources the EKC stopped operating on 1 July 2014, so a group for technical assistance was established at SURS which has since been providing effective technical assistance in e-reporting to business entities. Optimisation of procedures for selecting units for statistical observation As regards business statistics, activities related to optimising procedures for selecting units in statistical surveys continued in 2014. In preparing the general sampling frame, which serves as the main source for sampling frames for individual surveys, data from the Statistical Business Register (S_PRS) were taken into account, i.e. demographic data were taken into account, the methodology of the employed was improved, the methodology of fictive units was changed. As regards the reduction of reporting burden, coordinated sampling was for the first time implemented in some agriculture surveys. As regards the preparation of sampling frames for surveys of persons and households, SURS set up rules how to treat the addresses of special accommodations (group households, institutions, etc.). Improving the organisation of statistical data processing Within the project Standardisation of Statistical Data Processing, SURS continued to develop general software to support statistical data processing (editing, tabulation, statistical protection, calculation of precision). A new, general metadata-based application was developed and in 2014 SURS edited data for the first three regular statistical surveys with the help of this new application. Automated statistical processing procedures supported by the new application bring significant rationalisation of procedures, since it is no longer necessary to develop appropriate software solutions for each individual survey. The application also enables complete repeatability and traceability of individual phases of the process, which increases transparency and clarity of used procedures. The introduction of procedures with the help of the new application to other statistical surveys will continue next year. SURS monitors the development of seasonal adjustment of time series In 2014, SURS completed the transition to the Demetra+ software for seasonal adjustment of time series. As a member of the SAUG (Seasonal Adjustment User Group), SURS tested the new seasonal adjustment software JDemetra+ (developed by the National Bank of Belgium in cooperation with Eurostat), drew attention to the errors and proposed improvements. It reviewed and commented the updated guidelines of the European Statistical System for seasonal adjustment. Documentation of surveys for modernisation and standardisation of internal processes At the end of 2013 the group for documentation prepared the subject-matter proposal of the STATDOK documentation system, which was supplemented and edited in 2014 and tested on selected surveys. The testing involved subject-matter methodologists and process managers. On the basis of comments received and several coordination meetings, the group for documentation prepared the final version of the STATDOK documentation system. The technical environment for uploading documents and the proposal of a new organisational scheme of managing the documentation of statistical surveys at SURS were prepared. In 2015, the documentation for some surveys will be prepared according to the new system and the group for documentation will prepare specifications for the technical solution. Storage of final microdata Within the project Storage of Final Microdata the IT solution is being prepared that should satisfy the requirements for permanent storage of final microdata. SURS wants to set up a modern, transparent and safe system of storing final microdata, which will enable in any number of years to find final microdata of statistical surveys in the form that enables research analyses or any other internal work with them. On the basis of previously prepared process and technical specifications, the draft rules for storing final microdata were issued in 2014 and the proposal of the IT application was prepared. Then the prototype solution started to be developed. Its main purpose was to test and improve the proposed concepts and solutions and to test some technical tools. During the development of the prototype, open issues and problems were solved and technical solutions were implemented to the largest possible extent. In the second part of the project the final technical solution will be developed, the technical and user documentation will be prepared and the users will be gradually trained. 1.3 Implementing the activity of national statistics according to the cost-benefit principle Implementing the procedures for reducing the reporting burden SURS constantly focuses on seeking balance between obtaining quality data on one hand and reducing the reporting burden of enterprises and rational implementation of statistical surveys on the other hand. For easier and more comprehensive monitoring of the burden of business entities, in 2014 SURS started the project Measuring and Managing the Burden of Business Entities. The project is part of SURS’s strategic policy of reducing the reporting burden in statistical surveys and one of the activities for achieving the objective of non-excessive burden on respondents, which is one of the conclusions of the 23rd Statistical Day Conference entitled Statistics, a Partner of Businesses. The main objective of the project is to set up procedures and IT solutions for measuring the burden for business entities, for individual surveys and for SURS. Constant monitoring of the environment to provide new (alternative) data sources and technological support to introducing new data sources SURS continues its activities for obtaining data from administrative sources. It regularly monitors and supplements the records of administrative and secondary sources on the Surs.net intranet portal and records of agreements with keepers of administrative sources (see Annex B. Agreements and technical protocols signed by SURS in 2014). SURS started to include in the statistical process new data sources (big data) and methodologies for their processing. In this area SURS has been intensely cooperating in international working groups (UNECE, Eurostat). In 2014, the international UNECE working group set up the IT environment for storing and processing big data, implemented many experiments with various data sources, and prepared guidelines for estimating the quality of statistical data processing, procedures necessary for establishing partnerships with all stakeholders and procedures necessary for secure data management. As part of the group, SURS tested various tools for web scraping of data on job vacancies and the methodology of statistical processing of these data. The working group prepared a list of possible pilot projects and the timeline of implementing activities related to big data in the next few years. In the working group SURS is active primarily in the area of possible use of mobile telephony data. Within the project Merging Statistics and Geospatial Information 2014/2015, in 2014 SURS started to develop and set up the test infrastructure for taking over data from mobile operators into the statistical process and the methodology for processing these data. In the area of developing original mobile applications, SURS prepared user requirements and technical documentation for producing a mobile application for price data collection and the background management system that will be developed within the project Modernisation of Price Statistics. SURS prepared technical solutions for taking over and processing scanned prices of products in larger retail chains and subject-matter and technological bases for web scraping of data on product prices that are freely available on web portals. Project work SURS uses project work in introducing new procedures and methods of work in infrastructural areas, at major revisions of statistical surveys and in conducting more demanding statistical surveys with longer periodicity. Projects are implemented in line with the rules on project organisation and method of work at SURS. In 2014, SURS set up four new multiannual projects: management of personal data, computer assisted web interviewing of persons, measuring and managing of burden of business entities, and modernisation of price statistics. At the moment the following projects are being implemented at SURS: setting up and maintaining the multipurpose Statistical Business Register S_PRS, standardisation of processes of statistical data editing and imputation, upgrading SURS’s website, setting up a comprehensive system of disseminating geostatistics at SURS, and storage of final microdata. Constant monitoring of the efficient use of financial resources All through 2014 the Ministry of Finance and the Government of the Republic of Slovenia were restricting the use of resources, so SURS was constantly monitoring the use of resources and kept a policy that despite the restrictions all tasks planned for 2014 were implemented. SURS is a direct budget user. In 2014, it spent EUR 11,731,117 or 3% less than in 2013. It was mostly financed from the state budget (EUR 11,303,229), with additional financial resources coming from the European funds (EUR 421,731) and from own activity, compensation and proceeds (EUR 6,157). In 2014, too, SURS strived to obtain as many funds as possible from Eurostat’s grants. In addition to current contracts, 14 new grants for 24 surveys were signed in 2014. In 2014, SURS estimated the costs of individual surveys conducted in 2013. It will continue to implement this task, which was part of improvements recommended by peer reviewers, in 2015. It will upgrade the code lists (unit costs and activities) used by SURS’s employees for recording hours worked. Quarterly reports on work done – a mechanism for monitoring resources used and measuring the success of SURS’s operations In 2014, SURS continued to prepare quarterly reports on its operation and supplemented them by additional information referring to SURS’s work. The reports contain data on human resources, training, international cooperation, data collection, non-response analysis, hours worked, communication with the public, and financial situation. At the end of 2014 SURS had 323 employees SURS is organised into eight sectors and four services. In 2014, too, it was implementing its human resource policy in line with the decisions adopted by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, the valid legislation and within its financial capabilities. It did not sign any agreements on the continuation of the employment relationship with employees who had fulfilled the conditions for retirement, but timely took care of the transfer of knowledge and redistribution of tasks among other employees. In 2014, 13 employees terminated their employment at SURS. On 31 December 2014 SURS had 306 employees in permanent employment and 17 employees in temporary employment – for the duration of various projects or replacing colleagues on maternity leave. In view of the common human resource plan of state administration bodies, which allows 315 employees at the end of 2014, SURS has 9 employees less. The decline in employment is the result of retirement of public employees and restrictions in their employment. Due to the departure of public employees, SURS changed its internal organisation and systematisation, reviewed and additionally rationalised processes and redistributed tasks among the remaining employees. Despite the extreme rationalisation, to provide smooth, lawful, timely and effective operation and achievement of objectives for regular implementation of legally stipulated tasks SURS needed 7 replacement employees, for whom it got the Government’s permission. Well-trained and motivated staff is of key importance for high-quality implementation of activities SURS is aware that quality implementation of activities requires well-trained staff. So, in 2014 it continued to take care of employees’ obtaining appropriate knowledge through internal training. It prepared the Internal Training Programme and determined training that is compulsory for all SURS’s staff and for individual target groups of employees and the time frame in which they will have to obtain appropriate knowledge and skills. SURS took into account the skills of employees that are necessary for further successful work (communication, computer skills, statistical methods, etc.). To improve the planning of training and to promote professional development of staff, in 2014 SURS started to gradually introduce the competency model and discussed the identification and evaluation of competencies. The obtained data will be the basis for targeted planning of training activities and for monitoring the development (careers) of employees. In 2014, too, SURS was actively involved in national and international projects and cooperated in the ESS and the international environment. Inclusion of employees in projects and the international environment was planned with two objectives: as an opportunity for employees and SURS to obtain new knowledge and experience, and as motivation for the best and most successful employees and their personal development. The Pulse of Statistics – professional conference for all SURS’s employees In 2014, SURS organised the first Pulse of Statistics, an internal professional conference for SURS’s employees presenting work in various areas, new developments and progress, and exchanging experience and views of statistics. The conference will be organised twice a year. At the first conference, held on 16 April 2014, four topics were presented: STAGE – statistics and geography, introduction of revised European System of Accounts, introduction of e-reporting and the SOP project – development of the general application for implementing statistical data processing. The second conference, held on 6 November 2014, was attended by slightly more employees (186) than the first one and dealt with the European Statistics Code of Practice, how to successfully conduct a survey with the help of e-reporting and the new SURS website. The Pulse of Statistics conference was very well-accepted by SURS’s employees; the average grade given by them was 4.4. Participants of the first and second Pulse of Statistics 2 Achievements of national statistics in 2014 by subject-matter areas This chapter presents achievements of national statistics in 2014 by individual subject-matter areas. It follows the structure determined in the Medium-Term Programme of Statistical Surveys 2013–2017. 2.1 Indicators In 2014 pilot publication of green growth indicators and well-being indicators for Slovenia In 2014, SURS published for the first time green growth indicators in the Brochures collection.14 There are 19 indicators divided into four themes. In the future SURS will regularly update green growth indicators and publish them on the SI-STAT data portal. At the same time SURS updated sustainable development indicators for Slovenia and showed them at the level of statistical regions wherever possible. In cooperation with IMAD, NIJZ and ARSO, in 2014 SURS collected and prepared well-being indicators for Slovenia and published them on a special website.15 Health and health care indicators Health and health care indicators are a large set of indicators developed by expert groups within various EU projects. Currently, 88 indicators are defined precisely. In 2014, the NIJZ continued work started in 2013 when it prepared definitions of these indicators in Slovene. Some of these indicators were published on the NIJZ data portal16, and many of them are also available at the level of statistical regions. The standardised death rate due to stroke in Slovenia decreased from 79 per 100,000 population in 2003 to 52 per 100,000 population in 2013. The rate is the highest in the Pomurska region (86 per 100,000 population) and the lowest in the Obalno-kraška region (39 per 100,000 population). In 2014, the NIJZ continued to cooperate in the Joint Action EuroHex – Advanced Research on European Health Expectancies, where annual reports for Slovenia17 are prepared together with leading European researchers. 14 See Green Growth Indicators, October 2014,Brochure. Available at: http://www.stat.si/doc/pub/Kazalniki_zelene_rasti_ang.pdf (18. 2. 2015). 15 See: http://www.kazalniki-blaginje.gov.si/, available only in Slevene (18. 2. 2015). 16 See: https://podatki.nijz.si/pxweb/sl/NIJZ%20podatkovni%20portal/, available only in Slovene (18. 2. 2015). 17 Reports are published on www.eurohex.eu and the NIJZ website http://www.nijz.si/ (18. 2. 2015). Economic governance In the field of economic governance, the Ministry of Finance, the Bank of Slovenia and SURS cooperated in preparing the report on government deficit and debt, which was published on the websites of the MF18 and SURS. Globalisation indicators presented in three sets In 2014, SURS presented globalisation indicators in three sets. The first two sets included indicators on international trade in goods and services and foreign direct investment and the third one data on foreign affiliates.19 For data of the Enterprise Groups Register, SURS prepared a special electronic release20 and for the first time published a slightly wider set of data for 2008–2012 on the SI-STAT data portal. It continued development work on setting up the Euro Group Register (EGR 2.0) and introduced in the Enterprise Groups Register the assigning of the European unique identifier for legal units (EGR Identification Service). In 2012, there were 7,223 enterprise groups in Slovenia, which is 45% more than in 2008. 2.2 Systems of accounts 2.2.1 Economic and social development National accounts in line with the 2010 European System of Accounts The introduction of new European legislation in the field of national accounts (ESA 2010) was successfully finished in 2014. In August 2014, SURS published for the first time annual and quarterly GDP and employment in line with ESA 2010. The data were revised for the entire period since 1995. With methodological revision some other, smaller revision steps were made, procedures of regular annual revision and adjustment in line with requirements of the Gross National Income Committee, and particularly the revision of fixed capital consumption and the revision of financial services indirectly measured. Due to the revision, the value of GDP increased on average by 1.8%, of which by 1.7 percentage points due to ESA revision and by 0.1 of a percentage point due to other revision steps. In line with the Eurostat data transmission programme revised data from other areas of national accounts were published, namely government accounts, annual and quarterly non-financial sector accounts, supply and use tables and input-output tables, general government sector expenditure by purpose (COFOG), non-financial assets and regional accounts. 18 See: http://www.mf.gov.si/si/delovna_podrocja/javne_finance/tekoca_gibanja_v_javnih_financah/porocilo_o_ primanjkljaju_in_dolgu_sektorja_drzave/, available only in Slovene (27. 1. 2015). 19 See Globalisation indicators, Slovenia, 2013, 18 December 2014, First Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6707 (24. 2. 2015). 20 See Enterprise groups, Slovenia, 2012 – final data, 29 September 2014, E-Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6519 (21.1.2015). Development work in the field of national accounts In cooperation with the OECD and Eurostat, in March 2014 SURS published results of the project on the measurement of economic and social inequality of households in national accounts for 2008. Because this is a very interesting area, work continues within a new international project; new calculations will be prepared for 2012, which will enable a comparison of economic and social inequality of households before and during the economic crisis. In 2008 the income of the poorest households in Slovenia was 50% below the average, while the income of the richest households exceeded the average by 70%.21 SURS finished work on the project of land valuation. Methods and data sources for the calculation and the preliminary estimate by major groups of land and ownership were presented at the meeting of the Real Estate Statistics Advisory Committee. Development work in this area will continue both at SURS and at the European level. Financial accounts statistics In 2014, the Bank of Slovenia (BS) successfully compiled quarterly and annual financial accounts and transmitted all data to official and other interested recipients. The central statistical publication of the BS is the web release of the monthly Bulletin22, which contains data on financial institutions, external statistics, financial accounts statistics produced by the BS and basic economic statistics produced by SURS and the MF. The publication Financial Accounts of Slovenia 2008–201323 brings an analysis of financial accounts by individual sectors and a comparison with the euro area, non-consolidated and consolidated aggregated tables of financial accounts, non-consolidated tables of financial accounts by counterpart sectors and the methodology of compiling financial accounts. Financial intermediaries’ statistics In 2014, extensive production of monetary and financial statistics at monthly, quarterly and annual levels was successfully implemented in line with the prescribed methodological requirements of the European Central Bank (ECB) and own needs of the BS. This covers the data from the balance sheet and interest rates of monetary financial institutions (MFI) as well as securities, payment systems, structural data of the banking system and non-monetary financial intermediaries. In reports of credit institutions, investment funds and leasing companies the sectoral methodological changes in line with ESA 2010 were introduced already in 2014, while other methodological changes, including ECB requirements, were prepared for implementation in 2015. Based on Regulation ECB/2013/43 on payments statistics, the collection of harmonised and detailed data in view of the introduced Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) started in 2014. In line with the ESCB project for providing detailed credit data in the euro area, in 2014 the Bank of Slovenia continued activities for the introduction of a unified credit register, the purpose of which is to provide data for several purposes, with setting up a solid basis for an overview of credit risks in the Slovene financial system being particularly important. 21 See Distributional measures across household groups in national accounts, 3 March 2014, Special Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6078 (21. 1. 2015). 22 See: https://www.bsi.si/iskalniki/publications-montly-bulletin.asp?MapaId=210 (18. 2. 2015). 23 See: https://www.bsi.si/en/publications.asp?MapaId=923 (18. 2. 2015). As regards reporting by insurance companies, in December 2014 the ECB published a regulation according to which it will be necessary to provide the required data in 2016. The register of institutions and assets database is available to all members of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB); in 2014 it was expanded with additional time series and a set of data to support the single supervisory mechanism. External statistics In 2014, the BS recalculated balance of payments statistics, international investment position and external debt according to the methodology of the sixth edition of the Balance of Payments Manual (BPM6) and ESA 2010. In May 2014, a new method of reporting payment transactions with the rest of the world was introduced in agreement with the Bank Association of Slovenia. Because the latter is based on data in payment orders, in line with Regulation (EC) No. 924/2009 it was possible to preserve as a valuable source of data the set of transactions with the rest of the world irrespective of the amount of payment. In the revision of the balance of payment data and the international investment position and external debt, data series from 1994 on were recalculated according to the BPM6 methodology and ESA 2010. The new manual puts more emphasis on international investment position statistics, which plays an important role in analysing the vulnerability of individual countries. In the BPM6 the current account of the balance of payments is divided into four items: goods, services, primary income and secondary income. In name and mostly also in content, primary income replaces the item income from work and capital in the BPM5, while secondary income replaced the item current transfers. In the area of estimating exports and imports of travel services abroad, the missing data present an increasing challenge. In 2014, the data on border crossings were no longer available due to the problems with public tenders and lack of maintenance of traffic counters. In October 2014 the annual publication Direct Investment 201324 was released with detailed data on the origin of inward foreign investment in Slovenia and its integration into the Slovenian economy. The publication also contains data on and a brief analysis of Slovenia’s outward foreign direct investment and data on the operation of enterprises in the rest of the world with a direct or indirect controlling interest of Slovenian investors (Foreign Affiliates Statistics, FATS). General government accounts In 2014, the Ministry of Finance (MF) was regularly producing data on government finance statistics: first releases of state budget monthly data on revenue and expenditure accounts, lending and repayments account, financing account and state budget debt. At the annual level, reporting in first releases on consolidated general government accounts continued. Annual data on municipal budgets together and for each municipality separately according to the economic classification, program classification and functional activities are also available on MF’s website. On its website the MF was regularly publishing the Bulletin of Government Finance in Slovene and English25 language versions, which contains time series from 1992 on. The data were published as planned in line with the International Monetary Fund’s data dissemination standards. 24 See: http://www.bsi.si/library/includes/datoteka.asp?DatotekaId=6051 (18. 2. 2015). 25 See: http://www.mf.gov.si/en/areas_of_work/general_government_finance/public_finances/bulletin_of_ government_finance/ (27. 1. 2015). 2.2.2 Environmental sustainability Setting up a framework for developing resource management expenditure accounts In 2014, SURS continued to develop the first three modules of environmental-economic accounts: air emission accounts, material flow accounts, and environmentally related taxes. In the area of material flow accounts, the data on exports and imports were for the first time recalculated for EU28 (the previous calculation was made for EU27) and due to comparability the data were calculated for as far back as the year 2000. SURS continued development work on two new modules: environmental protection expenditure accounts (EPEA) and environmental goods and services sector accounts (EGSS), where data on persons employed in this sector (green jobs) were added. In Slovenia about EUR 1,348 million of the environmental taxes were paid in 2012, which is 7.6% more than in 2011. The largest share in the environmental taxes was that of energy taxes (81.2%). Transport taxes represented 10.7%, and pollution and resource taxes together 8.1%.26 SURS started to set up the framework for developing resource management accounts (ReMEA), which cover different areas of the environment; in the pilot project SURS focused on water management. In this way the national methodological framework was set up, which will serve for developing these accounts in other areas of resource management. Changes of the Regulation on Environmental Economic Accounts brought three new modules The amended Regulation on Environmental Economic Accounts was adopted in 2014, which stipulated three new modules of environmental economic accounts: Environmental Protection Expenditure Accounts (EPEA), Environmental Goods and Services Sector Accounts (EGSS) and Physical Energy Flow Accounts (PEFA). This first obligatory data reporting is envisaged in 2017. Thanks to constant development work at SURS, environmental protection expenditure accounts have already been developed, while work on the other two accounts is still going on. Use of administrative sources in forestry accounts Development of the system of integrated environmental economic accounts for forestry, which present a wide insight into the availability and use of forests and wood products, continued in 2014. On the basis of the new administrative data source (Farmland and Forest Fund of the Republic of Slovenia), within the economic part the methodology of monitoring the value of forestry services was revised. Administrative data sources (Slovenian Forestry Institute and Slovenian Forest Service) were identified and obtained, with the help of which the methodology for preparing new tables (forestry balance, forest damage and carbon balance for wood biomass) was subsequently harmonised. 26 See Environmentally related taxes, Slovenia, 2012 – final data, 26 September 2014, First Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6530 (23. 3. 2015). The value of output of the forestry industry reached 383 million EUR in 2013, i.e. 5% more than in 2012. Standing timber contributed the largest share in the total value of forestry goods output, i.e. 48% in 2013.27 Interinstitutional cooperation in economic accounts for agriculture Interinstitutional cooperation with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food took place within the FADN commission and meetings of the Monitoring Committee on Rural Development. As regards the methodology, SURS cooperated in the area of income of agricultural households and cadastral income. Knowledge and experience in the area of agro-monetary statistics was passed on to candidate countries in the form of technical assistance. Presentation of data on food in the brochure A Teaspoon of Data on Food In cooperation with the Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning and the Agricultural Institute of Slovenia, in 2014 SURS published again calendar and market balance sheets of production and consumption of agricultural products. Balance sheets for meat, eggs, cereals, potato, vegetables, rice, sugar and wine were published. At the World Food Day – in 2014 the central theme was sustainable supply of food available to everybody in sufficient quantities – SURS prepared a special release.28 As regards food, in 2014 SURS issued a brochure entitled A Teaspoon of Data on Food29, which in words and pictures presents Self-sufficiency rates for cereals, the importance of food, self-sufficiency, origin of consumed food, potato and vegetables, eating and shopping habits, economic availability of food and our Slovenija 201329 attitude towards food. 2.3 Basic statistics 2.3.1 Business Structural business statistics and high-growth enterprises Within the development of the structural business statistics, in 2014 SURS prepared the calculation for two variables: the number of employees in full time equivalent and the number of hours worked. It published data on regional business demography for the 2008–2010 period. Due to the adoption of the new regulation, the methodology of collecting data on high-growth enterprises was slightly changed. It brought changes in the coverage of activities and the set of variables, and a commitment to collect data on employer business demography (SURS was collecting these data even before the new regulation was adopted). 27 See Economic accounts for forestry, Slovenia, 2013 – final data, 1 October 2014, First Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6544 (23. 3. 2015). 28 See Slovenian Food Day, 19 November 2014, Special Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6652 (23. 3. 2015). 29 See A Teaspoon of Data on Food, 2015, Brochure. Available at: http://www.stat.si/dokument/5690/Teaspoon-data­food.pdf (18. 2. 2015). In 2012, the number of high-growth and medium-growth enterprises stopped falling; in total there were 1,254 such enterprises in terms of employment.30 Special releases and more data on short-term business statistics In 2014, SURS upgraded quarterly indicators on the performance of enterprises and prepared the expanded set of indicators from the first quarter of 2011 on. Eleven indicators on the quarterly performance of enterprises are now available. Due to the request of several reporting units, for the quarterly survey on the performance of enterprises an English version of the questionnaire was prepared. For greater recognition and general use of statistical data, three special releases were prepared, namely How important are small and medium-sized enterprises in Slovenia?31, Trade in the grip of the economic crisis32 and Is the crisis in Slovenia’s construction activity over?33. The situation in industry was presented at the March press conference. Data published in special releases were thus used for press purposes and for the general presentation of the situation in trade within the 8th Strategic Conference on Trade. New developments and process standardisation As regards short-term business statistics, SURS continued to introduce new, modern methods of data collection. In the first half of the year electronic reporting was introduced in surveys on trade and services and in business tendency surveys, where it is combined with telephone interviewing. All these changes reduced the burden of reporting units in terms of time and costs. In the case of business tendency surveys, an important process milestone was reached; SURS rationalised data collection and processing by designing a common questionnaire for all four business tendency surveys. Successful transition to e-reporting of business tendencies was presented in a paper entitled Online Surveys for Business Tendency in Slovenia34 at the international conference in Brussels. In September 2014 the consumer confidence indicator increased by 6 percentage points at the monthly level and achieved the highest value since September 2008.35 In early 2014, systematic data processing was introduced in surveys on trade, services and construction, which in a standardised way edits input data and calculates missing data. As regards construction, cooperation on the Spatial Information System project continued in 2014. One of the goals of this project is setting up the information system that will serve as the administrative source for monitoring building permits statistics. 30 See High-growth enterprises, Slovenia, 2011-2012 - final data, 23 April 2014, First Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6166 (23. 3. 2015). 31 See How important are small and medium-sized enterprises in Slovenia?, 29 September 2014 – Special Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6537 (23. 3. 2015). 32 See Trade in the grip of the economic crisis, 27 August 2014 – Special Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6461 (23. 3. 2015). 33 See Is the crisis in Slovenia’s construction activity over?, 24 July 2014 – Special Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6396 (23. 3. 2015). 34 See: http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/db_indicators/surveys/workshops_doc/index_en.htm (29. 1. 2015). 35 See Consumer opinion survey, Slovenia, September 2014 - final data, 23 September 2014, First Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6516 (23. 3. 2015). International activities in business statistics As regards trade and services statistics, the international contract for the Development of a European Index of Services Production was signed. Results of the mentioned project will contribute to upgrading the current processes and supplementing the methodology of trade and services statistics. As regards business tendency and consumer opinion, the international Framework Partnership Agreement n° ECFIN/226/2014 was signed in 2014 for a period of 6 years. One-year contracts on conducting the mentioned surveys were signed. In 2014, too, activities related to the changed European legislation for monitoring data on business statistics, i.e. introduction and realisation of FRIBS requirements continued. Regular AJPES work and interinstitutional cooperation AJPES implemented all planned surveys on annual accounts for various business segments. In addition to the administrative purpose, these data are an important data source for further use in various statistical surveys (e.g. national accounts statistics, business statistics). AJPES cooperated with SURS in conducting several statistical surveys, namely in the process of data collection, which was done electronically via the AJPES web portal (monthly report on earnings paid and holiday pay by legal entities, survey on scholarships, survey on paid dividends, quarterly survey on performance of business entities, survey on business services). AJPES was also conducting the monthly survey on legal entities with overdue outstanding obligations over five consecutive days. Together with the BS it was collecting (quarterly) data for quarterly financial accounts. In 2014, on average 6,370 legal entities with overdue outstanding obligations over five consecutive days were recorded, which is 9.4% more than on average in 2013, and on average 8,082 sole proprietors and other natural persons performing registered activities, which is 10.4% more than on average in the previous year.36 Interinstitutional cooperation is very important due to the rationalisation of procedures because in this way data reporting is simplified for reporting units and higher quality of collected data is achieved (reporting once for several purposes and several institutions, simply, electronically, friendly and inexpensively for the users). In 2014, AJPES’s representatives continued to cooperate in the interinstitutional working group for establishing a common methodology and database for monitoring the number of public sector employees within the common database of earnings, remunerations and some other benefits of public sector employees. In cooperation with the ministry responsible for the public sector wage system and with SURS, AJPES continued activities for adjusting the ISPAP database as the administrative data source on earnings in the public sector. AJPES’s representatives were also actively involved in statistical advisory committees dealing with AJPES’s field of work, i.e. business entities. One of the tasks of AJPES as a body that manages the Business Register of Slovenia (PRS) is to take care of the quality of data in the register37. In April-May 2014, AJPES checked the data on main activity and other activities actually performed by business entities and their units. Checking was implemented on selected cases with the so-called structural questionnaire, which AJPES sent to selected business entities. Business entities for which discrepancies were discovered during the check were asked to correct the data. 36 See: http://www.ajpes.si/Statistike/Statistike_placilnega_prometa/Neporavnane_obveznosti/O_raziskavi?id=627 (24. 2. 2015). 37 Decree on Keeping and Maintaining the Business Register of Slovenia, OJ RS, No. 121/2006. AJPES was regularly publishing on its website38 monthly aggregate data on gross earnings paid by legal entities of the public and private sectors and data on legal entities with overdue outstanding obligations over five consecutive days in an individual month. From the databases of annual reports, AJPES prepared and published information on operation of companies in the Republic of Slovenia in 2013, information on operation of sole proprietors in the Republic of Slovenia in 2013, information on operation of non-profit institutions – legal entities governed by private law in the Republic of Slovenia in 2013 and information on operation of societies in the Republic of Slovenia in 2013. AJPES also prepared and published information on operation of companies and sole proprietors for each statistical region. Bank of Slovenia’s survey on the access of enterprises to finance In 2014, too, the Bank of Slovenia conducted the survey on the access of enterprises to finance. The survey enables insight into the availability of external financing from the point of view of enterprises. Survey results are available on the BS website39. Work on the Statistical Business Register The Statistical Business Register (S_PRS) is a development task which SURS has been implementing as a project since 2011 and which is expected to be finished in the first months of 2016. The aim of the project is to set up the S_PRS, which will be the basis for all business statistics; for sampling, for preparing data for some statistical surveys, for addressing business entities, and for setting up satellite registers. For setting up the S_PRS data from over 15 administrative databases will be linked with data from over 30 statistical databases. The S_PRS will be prepared monthly and annually. In 2014, the emphasis was on preparing monthly states of the S_PRS. One of the main building blocks of monthly states of the S_PRS is procedures of determining business demography, which were tested and put in operation in 2014. Within the annual state of the S_PRS individual partial tables for earnings and employees were prepared as well as the basic process of determining the statistical activity. Trade in goods In 2014, SURS finished Eurostat’s MEETS 2012 project, within which it implemented the revised national methodology of estimating missing data on trade in goods in Intrastat both for final data for 2013 and for provisional data for 2014. SURS continued development work within the Eurostat SIMSTAT (Single Market Statistics) project and started to set up the necessary infrastructure for the exchange of microdata on dispatches of goods with other EU Member States, which will start to be implemented in 2015. Within the Eurostat project »Modernising Intrastat 2013«, SURS analysed the applicability of available administrative data from the VIES system, studied asymmetries in Intrastat data, so-called special trends, and conducted the survey on the burden of reporting units. The objective of these actions was to improve the quality of results and study the possibility of reducing statistical administrative burdens. As regards trade in goods by enterprise characteristics, in 2014 SURS linked the data on trade in goods with the data on enterprise groups and in this way slightly expanded the publication of these data. The highest value of exports and imports was generated by enterprises that are part of international enterprise groups. Foreign-controlled enterprises (8.3% of all exporters in 2012) generated more than a third of the total value of exports (35.7%).40 38 See: http://www.ajpes.si/ (24. 2. 2015). 39 See: http://www.bsi.si/publikacije-in-raziskave.asp?MapaId=223 (24. 2. 2015). 40 See Trade in goods by enterprise characteristics, Slovenia, 2012 - final data, 29 May 2014, First Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6261 (23. 3. 2015). Development activities in price statistics As regards price statistics, in addition to regular preparation and publication of data from the Annual Programme of Statistical Surveys, in 2014 SURS continued to study different possibilities of modernising data collection procedures. To this end it started the project Modernisation of Price Statistics, which will be running until mid-2016. The project determines three areas of simplification of data collection: replacement of the classical fieldwork price data collection by collection with electronic mobile devices, establishing the bases for comprehensive use of data from websites, and establishing the bases for comprehensive use of data from traders’ databases. In 2014, SURS spent a lot of time signing agreements with the largest traders on obtaining data from their databases and seeking solutions for including these data in the data processing system. As regards house price indices, SURS met all requirements of the Commission Regulation on owner-occupied housing price index, which is planned within the harmonised index of consumer prices. SURS set up regular quarterly production and time series of data from the 1st quarter 2009 on. The methodology and first data were presented at the Price Statistics Advisory Committee and the Real Estate Statistics Advisory Committee. SURS continued to develop methodological bases for setting up the commercial property price index. Intensive development of R&D and innovation statistics In addition to conducting regular surveys on research and development (R&D) and government budget appropriations or outlays on R&D and publishing their results, in spring 2014 the two-year survey on innovation activity for the 2010–2012 period, which included a module of questions on enterprise growth, and the three-year survey on careers and mobility of doctorate holders, which was conducted in cooperation with the OECD and UNESCO-UIS, ended with the publication of results. In the mentioned surveys (except the survey on R&D providers, which will be revised in 2015) the data processing was revised. At the end of 2012 there were 7,779 doctorate holders among citizens of Slovenia aged up to 69 years.41 In 2014, activities continued on improving the quality of data on R&D, which are implemented in cooperation with the interinstitutional working group involving representatives of the main users (MIZŠ, IMAD, MGRT, FDV, ARRS). Logical controls for checking the quality of reported data were upgraded and methodological guidelines for completing the questionnaires were improved. Again, the correctness of classifying centres of excellence in the business sector according to SKIS and the rules for weighting nonresponse were checked and confirmed. Discussion was held regarding consistent use of R&D definition at the national level in cooperation with relevant institutions. In line with political demands and measures related to monitoring the European Research Space and Europe 2020 objectives, in 2014 methodological development of science and technology statistics and innovation statistics continued at the EU and OECD level. The revision of the Frascati Manual was finished, activities for the revision of the Oslo Manual started and activities related to the preparation of the framework regulation integrating business statistics (FRIBS) continued. Within the preparations for the next implementation of the survey on innovation activity, within the EU a module of questions on eco innovation was prepared, which will be included in the questionnaire on innovation activity in the 2012-2014 period in 2015. 41 See Careers of doctorate holders, Slovenia, 2012 – provisional data, 24 April 2014, First Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6203 (23. 3. 2015). Usage of cloud computing services – a topic of a special module in ICT surveys In 2014, a special topic in the survey on the usage of information and communication technologies (ICT) in enterprises and in the survey on the usage of information and communication technologies (ICT) in households and by individuals was the usage of cloud computing services. With the publication of data collected with the survey on the usage of information and communication technologies (ICT) in households and by individuals on the SI-STAT Data Portal, SURS finally revised the publication of data collected with this survey. In Slovenia, 72% of persons used the Internet in the first quarter of 2014; 43% of them also used cloud computing services.42 Monitoring current indicators in ICT usage In 2014, results of the ESSnet project on the impact of ICT usage on enterprise performance were presented to members of the Advisory Committee on Information Society Statistics. The aim of the project was to link the data from various sources (survey on the ICT usage in enterprises, data from structural business statistics, data on innovation activity, data from the Statistical Business Register, etc.) and thus to enable the production of new indicators and analyses to support the Digital Agenda. Statistics on tourist arrivals and overnight stays, on tourism travels of domestic population and on travel agencies By conducting all planned surveys and producing various releases, SURS provided to its users statistical data on arrivals and overnight stays of tourists, on travels of domestic population and on the operation of travel agencies. In the survey on travels of domestic population, the questionnaire for 2014 included questions on possible assistance by travel agencies and the use of the Internet in organising travels. The highest numbers of tourist arrivals and overnight stays in tourist accommodations in Slovenia ever were recorded in 2013; more than 3,384,000 tourist arrivals (3% more than in 2012) and 9,579,000 overnight stays (1% more than in 2012).43 In May 2014, SURS published results of the survey on foreign travellers at road border crossings with Croatia, which was conducted in April, July–August, and October 2013. SURS conducts the survey every three years and interviews foreign passengers leaving Slovenia. In 2014, SURS started with intensive preparations for conducting the survey on foreign tourists in Slovenia and setting up cooperation with partners in implementing the survey, which is also conducted every three years. With this survey data are collected on sociodemographic characteristics of foreign tourists, on the characteristics of their arrival and stay in Slovenia (e.g. main reason for arrival, method of organising the travel), on the costs of travelling to and staying in Slovenia (including structure) and on the assessment of the stay in Slovenia. 42 See Use of cloud services for private purposes, Slovenia, 2014 - final data, 5 November 2014, First Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6630 (23. 3. 2015). 43 See Tourist arrivals and overnight stays, Slovenia, 2013 - final data, 18 April 2014, First Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6196 (23. 3. 2015). Single reporting of data on tourist arrivals and overnight stays SURS cooperated in the interinstitutional group with the MNZ, MJU, MGRT and AJPES for setting up the register of tourist accommodation establishments and common electronic reporting of tourist accommodation establishments on tourist arrivals and overnight stays. In addition to reducing the reporting burden, the setting up of e-reporting will help harmonise the data on the number and structure of tourist accommodation establishments and the data on tourist arrivals and overnight stays. Classifications in the field of business statistics In 2014, SURS offered support to users in classifying business entities by activities according to the Standard Classification of Activities and explaining the classification. For clerks at AJPES branch offices, training on SKD 2008 was organised. A table of frequently asked questions was prepared for explaining SKD 2008. SURS was actively cooperating in preparing positions and comments for changing the regulation on statistical classification of products by activity (CPA). SURS was actively cooperating in the revision (particularly expansion of the set of services) of the international PRODCOM classification, which serves for collecting and publishing internationally comparable data on industry. 2.3.2 People and the society Implementation of pilot e-reporting in the survey on divorces The survey on divorces is the only demographic survey that was still partly conducted with a paper questionnaire completed by district courts. SURS has been obtaining part of data on divorces from the administrative source (e-CRP), while courts report mostly data on dependent children and awarding custody of underage children on the basis of final decision on divorce. At the same time SURS additionally rationalised the content of the questionnaire, simplified it and built some controls in the web application to improve the quality of input data. The pilot implementation of e-reporting by the District Court Kranj received very positive response from data providers, so that in 2015 SURS will stop collecting data with the paper questionnaire and fully switch to electronic reporting. Publication of EUROPOP2013 population projections Eurostat published recent calculations of population projections for all 28 EU Member States and for Switzerland, Norway and Iceland for the 2013-2080 period. SURS considers the results for Slovenia as the official population projections for the country. According to EUROPOP2013 population projections, Slovenia will have the largest population in 2024.44 44 See EUROPOP2013 population projections for Slovenia, 7 April 2014, Special Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6168 (23. 3. 2015). ISPAP as the source of data for labour statistics In 2014, the interdepartmental working group of SURS, AJPES and MJU continued work on adjusting the information system for transmitting and analysing data on earnings, other payments and number of employees in the public sector (ISPAP) so that it will include the data SURS needs for monitoring earnings and persons in paid employment in the public sector. Analyses that have already been made indicate that in mid-2015 SURS will be able to start obtaining data for the survey on earnings for public sector entities exclusively from the ISPAP database and no longer with questionnaires. SURS studied the applicability of data available in the ISPAP system also for other areas of labour statistics. This is particularly true of calculating the earnings of public employees for the needs of the EU staff regulation and for the survey on hours worked. In the survey on hours worked the possibility of using additional data sources (in addition to ISPAP the M-4 form and the survey on working time structure) and the possibility of rationalisation of statistical data processing were analysed. In 2014, SURS published data on working time structure from the 2012 survey on working time structure and provisional data on labour costs from the 2012 labour costs survey. In business entities with fewer than 10 persons in paid employment labour costs per person in paid employment in 2012 amounted to EUR 1,594, while in business entities with more than 500 persons in paid employment they amounted to EUR 2,330.45 New releases of data on the labour force Within the Labour Force Survey, SURS implemented the ad-hoc module on the labour market situation of migrants and their immediate descendants; results were published at the end of May 2015. In April 2014 selected statistical data and labour market indicators were published by statistical regions, namely time series of data from 2002 to 2013. Pilot implementation of the job vacancy survey In 2014, SURS was preparing for collecting data on job vacancies directly from enterprises. To this end a pilot survey was conducted in October to test data collection processes. The pilot implementation was the basis for starting the regular implementation in early-2015. The reason for introducing the new method of data collection is the Act Amending the Labour Market Regulation Act (ZUTD-A), which in April 2013 abolished compulsory registration of job vacancies at the Employment Service of Slovenia. Compulsory registration of job vacancies was preserved only for the public sector and for majority state-owned companies. Employers can still use the services of the Employment Service for compulsory public announcement of job vacancies, but data collected in this way are not complete in the administrative record or representative by activities. Collection of these data is stipulated by the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on quarterly statistics on Community job vacancies. Transfer of monitoring the situation in labour market policy from SURS to the ZRSZ In 2014, reporting of data on the labour market policy was taken over from Eurostat by the DG EMPL. As a result, the same change happened in Slovenia. Reporting the data on the labour market policy, which used to be done by SURS, became the responsibility of the MDDSZ and the ZRSZ, since this is 45 See Labour costs (by Labour Cost Survey), 2012 - provisional data, 30 June 2014, First Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6361 (23. 3. 2015). sectoral and not national statistics. With SURS’s expert assistance, the transition was successfully finished at the end of October 2014, when the ZRSZ transmitted the data to the DG EMPL. In 2014, too, SURS prepared for the OECD the data on the tax-benefit system in Slovenia, on the basis of which various indicators are calculated. By taking into account the OECD methodology, it published own calculations of some work incentive indicators for 2013 (tax wedge, unemployment trap and low wage trap). Regular implementation of planned surveys by the ZRSZ In 2014, the ZRSZ conducted all surveys planned with the Annual Programme of Statistical Surveys for 2014 in line with the detailed release calendar. Since the Labour Market Regulation Act (ZUTD-A) came into force, the statistical survey on job vacancies no longer includes data on all job vacancies in the country, which reduced the statistical importance of this survey. Nevertheless, the ZRSZ continued to publish data on those job vacancies it received from employers and took care of appropriate subject-matter explanations of changes in time series. The ZRSZ implemented a task called Napovednik zaposlovanja46 (NAP-ZAP), the purpose of which is to provide short-term forecasts of trends in the labour market in Slovenia. The task was implemented as a project task co-financed by the European Social Fund. Interviewing was done twice a year and the response rate was appropriate for a web survey. Further rationalisation in education statistics In 2014, SURS conducted a comparative analysis of data on students and graduates of higher vocational education, which is available at the MIZŠ in the central record of participants in education and training (CEUVIZ), with the data collected by SURS. In view of satisfactory results of the comparison, SURS obtained the data on students of higher vocational education for the academic year 2014/2015 exclusively from the CEUVIZ, while for the time being the data on graduates will still be obtained from higher vocational education institutions. SURS will monitor the quality and completeness of coverage of data on graduates of higher vocational education in the CEUVIZ and, when the quality will be satisfactory, start to take over from this source. SURS also plans to take over from the CEUVIZ the data on people participating in education and on those who have already completed their education for other levels of education (from pre-school to upper secondary) and has already started to harmonise the set of data with the MIZŠ. In the school year 2013/14, 83,700 children were attending kindergartens, which was almost the same as in the previous school year.47 In the academic year 2013/14 a half of residents of Slovenia aged 19–24 were enrolled in tertiary education.48 Introduction of the new classification of levels of education ISCED 2011 In view of the revised international classification of levels of education ISCED 2011, in early 2014 in international reporting of data on formal education (UOE reporting) adjustments were made in monitoring financial data (breakdown of expenditure between expenditure for upper secondary general/vocational education, breakdown of expenditure for tertiary education among ISCED 2011 46 See: http://www.ess.gov.si/_files/6185/Napovednik_zaposlovanja_2014_1.pdf, available only in Slovene. 47 See Kindergartens, Slovenia, school year 2013/14 – final data, 26 March 2014, First Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6123 (23. 3. 2015). 48 See Student enrolment in tertiary education in the academic year 2013/14, Slovenia – final data, 29 May 2014, E-release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6266 (23. 3. 2015). level 5 – short-cycle tertiary education and levels 6–8 – undergraduate and postgraduate tertiary education; improvement of the quality of breaking down expenditure between ISCED 3 and ISCED 5 levels). Based on the testing of different options of questions on education in surveys in line with ISCED 2011, conducted in 2013, in 2014 a proposal was prepared and tested of a new (combined) method of interviewing people about achieved education and participation in education (based on the code list based on the KLASIUS e-search engine), which will enable better quality of data on the level and field of education in the Labour Force Survey and the Adult Education Survey. All activities related to the introduction of ISCED 2011 into international data reporting, which were implemented since early 2013 and were co-financed by the European Commission, were successfully finished by preparing the final subject-matter and financial report. Development of monitoring the data on learning mobility In line with the goals of the Europe 2020 strategy activities are going on for the development of the monitoring of data on learning mobility. Within the Labour Force Survey, in 2014 a pilot module was prepared and implemented with questions on mobility in initial vocational training and mobility of young people in general. In early 2015 the pilot survey on short-term mobility of tertiary graduates was conducted based on administrative sources (eVŠ) and available records of higher vocational colleges and other records; on this basis a proposal for future regular data collection, which will become compulsory in 2017, will be made. Decision to modernise culture statistics at the national level At the end of 2014 a decision was adopted to modernise culture statistics with the aim to prepare a proposal for comprehensive monitoring and publication of data on culture taking into account the development in recent years, the needs for data at national level and international guidelines, distinction between national and sectoral statistics, and rationalisation of data collection. To this end a working group was appointed which works within the Advisory Committee on Culture Statistics. The working group (in addition to SURS’s representatives also representatives of the Ministry of Culture and other institutions that are key users and keepers of administrative records) will, in line with the adopted action plan, prepare proposals of modernisation by the end of 2015. In view of the proposals given in the final report of the ESSnet project for culture, by combining cultural activities and occupations (according to ISCO-08 and Nace Rev. 2) Eurostat prepared a revised matrix of the number of persons employed in culture on the basis of the Labour Force Survey. The module of questions on cultural participation, which will be included in the EU-SILC in 2015, was also prepared. In 2013, cultural institutions in Slovenia organised 11,087 performances, which were attended by about 2.7 million people.49 Implementation of two European comparable surveys on health statistics In line with the implementing regulation50, in 2014 the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) conducted the second wave of the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS). Compared to 2007, when 49 See Activity of cultural institutions, Slovenia, 2013 - final data, 29 October 2014, First Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6602 (23. 3. 2015). the survey was conducted for the first time, the survey questionnaire was updated, but still provides temporal comparison of basic indicators that are the result of this survey. 11,000 persons aged 15+ living in private households were invited to participate in the survey. The selected persons were offered two options of answering survey questions: via a website and a visit by the interviewer. Data were collected in the second half of 2014 and results will be available in 2015. In February 2014, the NIJZ conducted the survey Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC). It was conducted on a sample of 11-, 13- and 15-year-olds in selected elementary and upper secondary schools. A novelty in conducting the survey in 2014 was the mode of the survey questionnaire, which the students completed entirely on the web (previous surveys were conducted with self-interviewing with a paper questionnaire). As a rule, surveying was conducted during the class hour. The survey represents an important source of information on health behaviours of young people in Slovenia; since 2002 its results have enabled policy-makers in Slovenia to continuously make appropriate decisions for improving health of young people in the country. Very important in conducting both surveys was experience obtained by the NIJZ conducting surveys in 2011-2012 by using mixed mode of interviewing and introducing web interviewing. Implementation of web surveys with the 1ka tool became a standard for all NIJZ surveys. About half of smokers die due to smoking related diseases; in Slovenia every year 3,600 people (almost 10 per day), one in four before completing 60 years of age.51 Methodological and technical revision of data collection at the NIJZ In 2013, the NIJZ implemented a methodological and technical revision of collecting data on hospital treatments, which in addition to treatments in general, specialised and tertiary hospitals include perinatal treatments (deliveries and births), foetal deaths and sterilisations carried out in hospitals. The methodological revision took into account international classifications and code lists as well the single information model in health care (developed together with the ZZZS and the MZ). At the same time, comparability with data from previous years is provided. The revision continued in 2014, when we captured for the first time methodologically and technologically updated data from hospitals via the e-transfer portal named e-Prenosi. At the same time, the NIJZ started to implement two other projects of revising regular data collection: the revision of collecting data on outpatient treatment that includes data on preventive and curative visits at primary and secondary levels, and the revision of collecting data on health care providers. In revising the monitoring of outpatient treatment the methodology and the draft of the new data flow process were prepared, where we wish to emphasise the rationalisation aspect (reporting in one place for several data collections) and the standardisation aspect (harmonisation of definitions and classifications among various data collections). In the revision of the register of health care providers, too, the methodology and the data flow process were prepared. Essential innovation regarding the register of health care providers is cooperation of three partners (NIJZ, ZZZS and MZ) and collection of data at the place of origin. In this way reporting for the register of health care providers will be simplified and data will be of greater quality. 50 Commission Regulation (EU) No 141/2013 of 19 February 2013 implementing Regulation (EC) No 1338/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on Community statistics on public health and health and safety at work, as regards statistics based on the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS). 51 See: http://www.nijz.si/Mp.aspx?ni=0&pi=19&_19_view=item&_19_newsid=2731&pl=0-19.0 (24. 2. 2015). The pilot project of electronic certification of causes of death (financed by European funds) In 2013, the NIJZ obtained funds for the pilot project of electronic certification of causes of death, which will be implemented by June 2016. Work on the project started in 2014. The existing situation was analysed in detail, proposals were prepared for technical modernisation of collecting data on causes of death and the pilot application for data entry was developed; in January 2015 the application was given to coroners for testing. In the project the NIJZ cooperated intensively with the Institute of Forensic Medicine. Current work of the NIJZ for national statistics and international reporting In 2014, too, the NIJZ was implementing regular tasks related to causes of death, health status and health determinants, health care, pharmaceutical activity, health care providers and absence from work; all mentioned is the source of data for national statistics and for reporting to international organisations (Eurostat, OECD, WHO, etc.). Data from the survey on income and living conditions by statistical regions In the Survey on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC), SURS expanded the set of data and their dissemination on the SI-STAT data portal. Much data from this survey are available for statistical regions, namely from 2008 on. In addition to regular releases, detailed data from the ad hoc module on well-being were also published. In 2014, the survey questionnaire was revised; for some compulsory content direct data collection was replaced by administrative sources, which reduced the burden of data providers. In 2014, SURS was actively cooperating in the working group for the revision of the legal basis of the EU-SILC survey, in the working group for preparing the 2017 ad hoc module and with international organisations (OECD) in the field of measuring poverty. SURS is providing data from the Survey on Income and Living Conditions in line with the EU legislation, which stipulates the transmission of microdata to Eurostat by 30 November for the previous year. A new EU regulation, which will shift the deadline to June, is being prepared. For data on income, SURS uses administrative sources (the most important being income tax); however, final data from these sources are available relatively late (in December for the previous year). Therefore, within a grant for the improvement of the timeliness of SILC data, SURS will analyse the use of provisional data on income tax, which it receives in June for the previous year, and their impact on calculating the most important indicators of this survey (e.g. at-risk-of-poverty rate). In 2013, people in Slovenia were generally satisfied with their lives.52 52 See Wellbeing, Slovenia, 2013 – final data, 23 December 2014, First Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6740 (23. 3. 2015). First independent publication of data on long-term care expenditure and long-term care recipients The interinstitutional Working Group on Long-Term Care finished its work at the end of 2014 as it successfully implemented all tasks written in the decision on its establishment and were within its competence. One of the goals of the working group was to publish data on long-term care. At the end of 2014, SURS for the first time independently (and not within total health expenditure) published the data on long-term care expenditure and for the first time ever the data on recipients from the 2011­2012 period. These data will (or should) be the basis for legal regulation of long-term care in Slovenia, which should come into force in 2016. In 2012, EUR 477 million was spent on long-term care in Slovenia or 1.8% more than in the previous year.53 Survey on household finance and consumption The survey on household finance and consumption is conducted every three years in all euro area countries. In 2014, the Bank of Slovenia selected the contractor at a public tender. Between September and the end of the year the contractor interviewed a sample of selected households. The sample was prepared by SURS. Termination of statistical surveys on public social welfare institutions As regards the implementation of surveys on public social welfare institutions (old people’s homes, special social welfare institutions and centres for protection and training), in 2014 SURS reviewed the situation and researched the possibilities for rationalisation of monitoring and publishing data and reducing the burden of reporting units. Because the mentioned statistics are so-called sectoral statistics of the MDDSZ and because of a relatively small number of users of published data, SURS decided to stop conducting the mentioned surveys. Users will still have archive data on public social welfare institutions on SURS’s website, and recent data in annual reports of the Association of Social Institutions of Slovenia or at the MDDSZ. Taking care of the quality of data in the register of persons and other data collections at the ZPIZ In 2014, taking care of the register of persons was taken over by the statistics and analytics service. It was editing and supplementing the data in the register of persons and other data collections of the institute, preparing solutions for optimization of applications and new information solutions, preparing instructions, giving information and cooperating in other activities related to editing data in ZPIZ databases. All this influenced and influences the quality of statistical data. 53 See Long-term care, Slovenia, 2011 – 2012, 30 December 2014, First Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6749 (23. 3. 2015). Average gross old-age pension, Slovenia, 2013 (Source: STAGE, http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/interactive/maps-and-geodata/atlas) In 2014, the ZPIZ started the transition of processing from CICS into Cognos. The methodology and the data warehouse for data on the number of new recipients of old-age and disability pensions were prepared. The transition will continue in 2015 and will finish in 2016. In 2014, the ZPIZ prepared for the IMF detailed data on insured persons and recipients of benefits, which were the basis for preparing the model of the pension system and for the report on pension expenditure in Slovenia. The report was published in June 2014, when Slovenia was visited by the IMF delegation and judged the progress of Slovenia and the sustainability of the pension system and public finance. Crime statistics – increased use of administrative sources In 2014, SURS obtained data on denounced natural persons and legal entities from the revised information system of the Office of the State Prosecutor General and modernised data processing. An agreement was reached with the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia on the transmission of data from 2015 on from the information system for monitoring criminal proceedings for accused natural persons and legal entities. For 2015, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Slovenia will transmit to SURS the data in the present extent (at the level of accused persons/entities), while in the future it is expected that it will transmit the data in the upgraded extent (at the level of accused persons/entities and at the level of the criminal act). This will enable SURS to stop collecting data directly from district and local courts via paper questionnaires. The Criminal Police Directorate tested the proposal of a new International Classification Crimes for Statistical Purposes (ICCS) and gave a positive opinion about the classification. The final version of the classification was confirmed by the UN Statistical Commission in February 2015. A manual on ICCS use is being prepared. In 2013, 34% more adults were convicted than in 2012, mainly due to the introduction of the pre-trial hearing and agreement on the admission of guilt.54 54 See Decisions of prosecutors and courts in criminal matters, Slovenia, 2013 - final data, 25 August 2014, First Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6431 (23. 3. 2015). End of monitoring and publishing of data on elections at SURS In view of the rationalisation and division of competence between sectoral and national statistics, a decision was adopted that SURS, in addition to abandoning the monitoring of other types of elections (the decision was adopted in 2012), also stops monitoring and publishing data on National Assembly elections and local elections. The decision was adopted on the basis on the following arguments: the National Statistics Act and the acts regulating elections are in collision regarding the official nature of election results; preparation of election data for publication is not classical statistical data processing (there are no logical controls, editing, imputation, weighting, linking with other sources and taking into account other statistical standards) but only data aggregation; users of these data can obtain them on the website of the State Election Commission a few hours after the polling places are closed; with distance in time these data are no longer interesting for the users; abandoning the monitoring of elections by SURS ends duplication of work in public administration in this area and contributes to greater rationalisation. Classifications in the field of social statistics In 2014, SURS continued to implement complex activities related to providing international statistical reporting of data according to revised ISCED 2011 levels of education. At the national and international level, in August 2014 activities were finished regarding the harmonisation of correspondence tables between ISCED-A 2011, ISCED-P 2011 and KLASIUS-SRV categories, which enabled SURS to finish and publish on the website recommendations and tools for reporting data according to ISCED 2011. To this end, SURS developed and tested the new statistical survey code list of education. The new code list is based on the statistical collection of programmes and titles of education, on which the KLASIUS e-search engine works, and will support the coding of levels and fields of education in statistical surveys (Labour Force Survey, Adult Education Survey). Within interinstitutional working group for SKP-08, in the second half of 2014 SURS collected and harmonised the proposals of new units (names of jobs/occupations) for supplementing the statistical data collection on which the SKP e-search engine55 works. This upgraded key tool for classifying work into SKP-08 groups of occupations will be available to users in the first quarter of 2015. Supplements and subject-matter upgrades of the statistical data collection on which the KLASIUS e-search engine56 works could not be implemented by SURS in 2014. At the ministry competent for education and other competent institutions activities related to editing data in official records, particularly data on programmes, including KLASIUS codes, were postponed. SURS will implement the planned subject-matter revision of the statistical data collection on which the KLASIUS e-search engine works in 2015. Help in understanding and using KLASIUS and SKP-08 classifications was provided by SURS to individual users regularly and rapidly via established communication mechanisms. Interinstitutionally, SURS cooperated more intensively with the ZRSZ, which on 1 January 2014 started to use KLASIUS in all its records and data warehouses, and the MJU and the MF in connection with the planned more intensive use of SKP-08 at the transition of state bodies and institutions to electronic submission of social security forms (M forms) within the unified accounting system of the Ministry of Finance. In the second half of 2014, SURS started with activities related to international statistical data reporting according to revised ISCED fields, i.e. according to the new ISCED-F 2013 classification. According to EU legislation regulating individual statistical surveys, data according to ISCED-F 2013 will have to be reported from 2016 on. Most activities with which the existing KLASIUS-P classification will be replaced by the new »KLASIUS-P« or ISCED-F 2013 – including the preparation of the 55 See: http://www.stat.si/skp/, available only in Slovene (18. 2. 2015). 56 See: http://www.stat.si/klasius/, available only in Slovene (18. 2. 2015). regulation on amending KLASIUS – will be implemented by SURS in 2015 because UNESCO has not yet finished and released final methodological explanations for ISCED-F 2013. In 2014, the NIJZ together with the MZ and the ZZZS prepared the revised version of the code list of types of health services, which will be the basis for various e-services in the health care system, including e-referral; where in 2014 it started with pilot use. The code list of types of health services is very important also for the revision of some data collections (outpatient treatments). Within the e-Health solutions an e-book was published57, which enables a simple overview of the Australian Modification of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10-AM-v6) in connection with the Australian Classification of Health Interventions (KTDP) and the Coding Standards. So far, ICD-10-AM, KTDP and Coding Standards have been available only in PDF format; the new e-book enables interactive search of the classification and linking with Standards. The e-book will enable the physicians and coders in hospitals better recording of diagnoses and procedures. 2.3.3 Environmental, agricultural and other sectoral statistics Signed updated agreement on cooperation in the field of environmental statistics between ARSO and SURS In 2014, SURS was implementing regular tasks from the fields of water, waste and environmental protection investment. It also took over and published data on greenhouse gas emissions, prepared and published a release at the World Water Day58, which dealt with water and energy, and a release at the World Environment Day59, the main topic of which was climate change and its impact. SURS and ARSO signed a new, updated and supplemented agreement on cooperation in environmental statistics, which covers the areas of cooperation and stipulates data exchange procedures. The working group on water statistics helped improve the quality of data on water As regards water statistics, in 2014 the working group on water statistics was active, which contributed to the improvement of the quality of data on drinking water and water used for irrigation. Experts from participating institutions (ARSO, NIJZ, IzVRS and SURS) agreed on the criteria for the division of water sources, which will help increase the transparency and comparability of data on drinking water. As regards irrigation statistics, the possibilities of taking over administrative data on the quantity of water used for irrigation were analysed, which will be realised next year. In 2013, 3.6 million m3 of water were used for irrigation, which is 61% more than in 2012.60 57 See: http://eknjiga.ezdrav.si/ (24. 2. 2015). 58 See World Water Day 2014, 20 March 2014, Special Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6128 (23. 3. 2015). 59 See World Environment Day 2014, 3 June 2014, Special Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6285 (23. 3. 2015). 60 See Irrigation area, Slovenia, 2013 - final data, 4 June 2014, First Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6250 (23. 3. 2015). As regards waste water statistics, in 2014 intensive cooperation with the MOP regarding taking over the administrative source and reducing the burden of reporting units continued. In 2014, SURS cooperated in the interinstitutional group of the project for setting up the information system for implementing the directive on urban waste water treatment (UWWTD_SIIF). Within the project all data sources and all needs for data at national level were examined. Work on the project will continue up to 2016 when the information system is to be set up and be ready for use. In 2014, SURS revised the survey on industrial water use. The changed methodology of data coverage and modernisation of controls improved the quality of data on industrial water use. The described updates were partly implemented within the project Revision of Water Statistics, which was financed by Eurostat. SURS will continue with development work in 2015 with the help of European funds. Reduction of costs of conducting surveys on waste due to the introduction of new procedures and methods In 2014, SURS for the first time took over part of data from waste collectors and processors from the IS-Waste information system managed by ARSO. Due to the new method of data collection, classical data collection via paper forms was stopped, which reduced the costs of survey implementation. All procedures of data processing – from coverage to data control – had to be properly adjusted. In 2014, SURS also upgraded the procedure of automatic data editing in the survey on waste generated in production and service activities, which partly reduced the burden of the department for cooperation with enterprises. As regards municipal waste statistics, SURS supplemented the methodology of data processing and presentation and started to join data from two surveys on waste to obtain more and better data on municipal waste generation. Large emphasis was put on following the flow of waste from generation to final treatment; by supplementing the questionnaire SURS will put even more emphasis on this issue. In 2013, a person in Slovenia generated on average 414 kg of municipal waste or more than 1 kg of municipal waste per day. 61 As regards food waste statistics, which was again in the centre of attention in 2014, the methodology started to be set up to cover these data. A framework was set up in which types of waste were determined. Work will continue in 2015, when the final methodology will be presented and data at the national level will be disseminated. Significantly shorter publication deadline for data on environmental protection expenditure In line with the annual programme, in 2014 SURS conducted all surveys on environmental protection expenditure, which cover various activities, specialised producers and the government sector. The deadlines for data processing were shortened, which resulted in more rapid data publication. The deadline was shortened from 18 months after the reference period to 13 months after the reference period. 61 See Waste, Slovenia, 2013 - final data, 18 November 2014, E-release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6647 (23. 3. 2015). Published final data on the farm structure for 2013 and for the first time comparable data on economic size and typology of agricultural holdings for three reference years In 2014, SURS published final, detailed data on farm structure for 2013. For the first time recalculated data on economic size and typology of agricultural holdings according to the harmonised methodology for three reference years (2007, 2010 and 2013) were available to users. SURS was also active internationally in connection with the amended EU Regulation62, which will determine data collection of additional content in the 2016 survey. In cooperation with Eurostat, SURS was constantly striving for high quality of data and for non-excessive burden of reporting units and emphasised and proposed the necessary upgrades of administrative data sources. Total standard output of agricultural holdings in Slovenia in 2013 exceeded EUR one billion, which is an average of EUR 13,944 per holding. The total standard output from 2007 to 2013 increased by 14% (from EUR 885 million to EUR 1,009 million).63 Introduction of e-reporting about average yield, all regular tasks implemented and started preparations for setting up statistics on eggs for consumption Within crop production statistics, in 2014 SURS implemented all planned tasks and introduced e-reporting on average yield. Within the preparations for e-reporting, SURS implemented subject-matter and technical training for experts estimating data on average yield of crops. It published final data of the three-year statistical survey Census of Horticulture. It worked on technical modernisation of statistical process. SURS was actively cooperating internationally on the preparation of the EU Regulation on agricultural production statistics64. Within statistics of livestock, milk and milk products, SURS implemented planned regular tasks and published survey results within the announced deadlines. Within livestock statistics, SURS joined the pilot project financed by Eurostat on setting up statistics of eggs for consumption, which will take place in 2015 and 2016. Almost 517,000 tons of milk was collected from agricultural holdings in Slovenia in 2013. This quantity could fill up the Stožice football stadium in Ljubljana. At the Slovenian Food Day65 SURS prepared a special release in which it collected and commented statistical data from various areas of interest for discussions regarding the traditional Slovenian breakfast and related to food production in Slovenia. In May 2014 the brochure Agriculture in Slovenia 62 Regulation (EC) No 1166/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on farm structure surveys and the survey on agricultural production methods and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 571/88 (32008R1166). 63 See Farm structure survey, detailed data, Slovenia and statistical regions, 2013 - final data, 19 December 2014, E-release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6718 (18. 2. 2015). 64 Regulation (EC) No 543/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 June 2009 concerning crop statistics and repealing Council Regulations (EEC) No 837/90 and (EEC) No 959/93 and Regulation (EU) No 1337/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 December 2011 concerning European statistics on permanent crops and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 357/79 and Directive 2001/109/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council 65 See Slovenian Food Day, 19 November 2014, Special Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6652 (23. 3. 2015). and the Rest of the EU66 was issued, in which SURS compares agriculture in Slovenia with agriculture in the EU-27 overall and in individual other EU Member States both in terms of extent of agricultural production and in terms of economic value. For the first time SURS obtained the data with the multiannual statistical survey on the consumption of plant protection products by crops As regards pesticide statistics, in 2014 SURS published in cooperation with the Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Food Safety, Veterinary and Plant Protection (UVHVVR) annual data on the sale of plant protection products in Slovenia. As regards the use of plant protection products in agriculture, it started to conduct the first instance of the regular five-year statistical survey. For this task a contract for obtaining European funding was signed in 2013; with the help of European funding a statistical process necessary for implementing this task will be set up and the possibility of using administrative sources will be studied. Cooperation between SURS and the UVHVVR is crucial. Therefore, in 2014 the two institutions signed an agreement on cooperation, which determines the use of administrative sources of data on the use of plant protection products in agriculture for statistical purposes. First data of the statistical survey will be published at the end of 2015. As regards consumption of mineral fertilisers in agriculture, SURS implemented the regular annual statistical survey and collected data for the two-year statistical survey on the consumption of mineral fertilisers by crops (telephone interviewing was conducted in November 2014). As regards the provision of data for calculating agri-environmental indicators, SURS was actively cooperating with Eurostat, the MKGP and KIS. Worth pointing out is the preparation of data on the gross phosphorous balance, which was released in the second half of February 2015. Data are calculated by KIS based on the updated and harmonised OECD/Eurostat methodology. Reporting of Member States to Eurostat is thus harmonised with reporting to United Nations according to the UN Convention on Climate Change and reporting to the UN Economic Commission for Europe according to the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution. In 2013 the estimated average consumption of mineral fertilisers per hectare of utilised agricultural area was larger by 1.7% than in 2012, while the average consumption of main plant nutrients was up by 2.4%.67 Regular and development tasks in the field of agricultural price statistics As regards agricultural price statistics, which includes monitoring the prices of products and services for current consumption, investment in agriculture, sale and purchase of agricultural products and wood, in 2014 SURS implemented all regular tasks and published the data within planned dates. In the development task Prices and Rents of Agricultural Land, which takes place within the European project, SURS studied the methodology for monitoring prices and rents of agricultural land (arable land and permanent grassland) in the Republic of Slovenia, and analysed available secondary data sources. In 2015, SURS will continue to work and calculate average prices and rents of arable land and permanent grassland for 2013 and 2014 at the level of cohesion regions. In implementing this task it successfully cooperated with GURS and the Farmland and Forest Fund of the Republic of Slovenia. 66 See Agriculture in Slovenia and the Rest of the EU, May 2013, Brochures collection. Available at: https://www.stat.si/doc/pub/agriculture_EU.pdf (18. 2. 2015). 67 See Consumption of mineral fertilisers, Slovenia, 2013 - final data, 18 August 2014, First Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6428 (23. 3. 2015). More data on forestry on the SI-STAT Data Portal As regards basic forestry statistics, in 2014 SURS conducted the regular annual survey on forestry activity of business entities and published survey results within the planned deadlines. Within Forestry area on the SI-STAT data portal SURS supplemented general data on forestry in Slovenia (from administrative sources) that have so far been published only in the Statistical Yearbook. SURS thus improved the transparency and applicability of basic data on forestry. The total fuel consumption in forestry enterprises in 2013 was about 5.1 million litres (gasoline and diesel), or about 8% less than in the previous year.68 Fisheries statistics without major changes SURS implemented all regular tasks related to close cooperation with the MKGP, which is the keeper of most of the data sources for conducting statistical surveys on marine commercial fishing/landing and aquaculture. In 2013, landing (catch) by Slovene fisherman more than a quarter (28%) lower than in 2012.69 Modelling of data on household energy consumption In energy statistics, SURS conducted all planned regular surveys and collected data on production, use, import and export, stocks and prices of electricity, heat, liquid, gaseous and solid fuels, and renewable energy sources. It published data on final household energy consumption by end use and energy sources, which were calculated with a model. In 2013, households consumed 48,474 TJ of energy. Most of the energy (29,524 TJ or 61%) was consumed for space heating.70 Commission Regulation (EU) No. 431/2014 of April 2014 amending Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on energy statistics stipulates the implementation of annual statistics on energy consumption in households by end use. SURS followed the generation of a new commitment and for reasons of cost-effectiveness established cooperation with the Jožef Stefan Institute, which developed a model for calculating household energy consumption by end use. This cooperation enables the survey to be conducted every 3-5 years, while in the interim years the data are calculated with the model. As regards renewable energy sources, SURS supplemented the data from existing and new data sources cooperating intensively with the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Energy Agency, the Jožef 68 See Forestry mechanisation and fuel consumption in enterprises registered for forestry activity, Slovenia, 2013 – final data, 12 September 2014, First Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release­old?IdNovice=6483 (23. 3. 2015). 69 See Marine fishing, Slovenia, 2013 – final data, 27 June 2014, First Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6336 (23. 3. 2015) 70 See Energy consumption in households, Slovenia, 2013 - final data, 9 October 2014, First Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6564 (23. 3. 2015). Stefan Institute, the Geological Survey of Slovenia and Borzen. A new Energy Act was adopted in 2014, which brought many new developments regarding administrative collections of data on heat prices, cooling and heating systems, electricity sources, energy performance certificates, etc., which SURS will include in energy statistics. In 2014, activities took place for harmonising data on stocks of selected petroleum products. The data sources are mostly administrative. Intensive coordination took place between SURS, IEA, Eurostat, the Institute of the Republic of Slovenia for Commodity Reserves, the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology, and larger petroleum traders actively trading with selected petroleum products in Slovenia. A result of the coordination was the revision of monthly data for 2013. Transport statistics Surveys and releases from the field of transport statistics were mostly implemented as planned and SURS was constantly taking care of preserving and even increasing the quality of statistical results. In monitoring of the number of vehicles by types and the number of passengers at the road border crossings with Croatia and in monitoring the road infrastructure, SURS was faced with problems in obtaining administrative data from authorised institutions and as a result with a delay in disseminating data to users. In 2013, the average age of passenger cars in Slovenia was 9.1 years. Between 2004 and 2013 it increased by 1.7 years.71 To provide comparable data on maritime transport, in 2014 SURS cooperated in the Maritime Transport Facilitation Committee. The Committee strives to set up a single national point for simplifying formalities of reporting by shipping companies (implementation of the Decree on Reporting Formalities for Ships, OJ RS, No. 69/12). For rationalisation of work and achieving compliance, SURS’s development work in transport statistics strongly relies on guidelines and activities of international organisations such as Eurostat, UNECE and the ITF. Many development activities in 2014 took place mostly at Eurostat; the most important among them monitoring of intermodal transport, measuring mobility and extent of road passenger transport, development of modal split indicators, with which the extent of transport by different transport modes can be appropriately compared, and measuring emissions by individual transport modes. 71 See Transport, Slovenia, 2013 – final data, 28 October 2014, First Release. Available at: http://www.stat.si/StatWeb/en/mainnavigation/data/show-first-release-old?IdNovice=6609 (23. 3. 2015). Annex A. Statistical legislation adopted in 2014: - Commission Regulation (EU) No 67/2014 of 27 January 2014 implementing Regulation (EC) No 1177/2003 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning Community statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC) as regards the 2015 list of target secondary variables on social and cultural participation and material deprivation - Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 205/2014 of 4 March 2014 laying down uniformed conditions for the implementation of Regulation (EU) No 1260/2013 of the European Parliament and the Council on European demographic statistics, as regards breakdowns of data, deadlines and data revisions - Regulation (EU) No 378/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 April 2014 amending Regulation (EC) No 1166/2008 as regards the financial framework for the period 2014­2018 - Commission Regulation (EU) No 431/2014 of 24 April 2014 amending Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on energy statistics, as regards the implementation of annual statistics on energy consumption in households - Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 439/2014 of 29 April 2014 amending Regulation (EC) No 250/2009 implementing Regulation (EC) No 295/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning structural business statistics, as regards the definitions of characteristics and the technical format for the transmission of data - Commission Regulation (EU) No 446/2014 of 2 May 2014 amending Regulation (EC) No 295/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning structural business statistics, and Commission Regulations (EC) No 251/2009 and (EU) No 275/2010, as regards the series of data to be produced and the criteria for evaluation of the quality of structural business statistics - Regulation (EU) No 538/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 amending Regulation (EU) No 691/2011 on European environmental economic accounts - Regulation (EU) No 545/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 amending Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 on the organisation of a labour force sample survey in the Community - Regulation (EU) No 659/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 May 2014 amending Regulation (EC) No 638/2004 on Community statistics relating to trading of goods between Member States as regards conferring delegated and implementing powers on the Commission for the adoption of certain measures, the communication of information by the customs administration, the exchange of confidential data between Member States and the definition of statistical value - Commission Regulation (EU) No 842/2014 of 4 July 2014 establishing for 2014 the ‘Prodcom list’ of industrial products provided for by Council Regulation (EEC) No 3924/91 - Commission Regulation (EU) No 1196/2014 of 30 October 2014 implementing Regulation (EC) No 808/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning Community statistics on the information society - Commission Regulation (EU) No 1209/2014 of 29 October 2014 amending Regulation (EC) No 451/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a new statistical classification of products by activity (CPA) and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 3696/93 - Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 1397/2014 of 22 October 2014 amending Regulation (EU) No 318/2013 adopting the programme of ad hoc modules, covering the years 2016 to 2018, for the labour force sample survey provided for by Council Regulation (EC) No 577/98 - Regulation (EU) No 1374/2014 of the European Central Bank of 28 November 2014 on statistical reporting requirements for insurance corporations (ECB/2014/50) B. Agreements and technical protocols signed by SURS in 2014: - Agreement on transmission and use of data from the record of the sale of plant protection products and on cooperation in conducting the survey on the use of plant protection products in agriculture and Technical protocol on transmission of annual data from the record of the sale of plant protection products with the Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Food Safety, Veterinary and Plant Protection, 9 January 2014 - Agreement on the rationalisation of data collection and harmonisation of data in the field of environmental statistics in the Republic of Slovenia, Technical protocol on the transmission of data on waste, Technical protocol on the transmission of data on air emissions, Technical protocol on the transmission of data on biodiversity, Technical protocol on the transmission of data on environmental protection taxes, Technical protocol on the transmission of data on water, Technical protocol on the transmission of data for environmental accounts, and Technical protocol on the transmission of data on earthquakes and climate change with the Slovenia Environment Agency, 9 January 2014 - Annex to the Agreement on data exchange and Technical protocol on the transmission of data from corporate income tax returns with the Tax Administration of the Republic of Slovenia, 24 March 2014 - Technical protocol on the transmission of data from the tax return of personal income tax prepayment for income from self-employment with the Tax Administration of the Republic of Slovenia, 25 March 2014 - Protocol on the transmission of data by the Customs Administration of the Republic of Slovenia to the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia from electronic customs declarations within the implementation of the Single Authorisation for Simplified Procedures, Protocol on the access to data in the EOS customs system by the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, Protocol on the transmission of data by the Customs Administration of the republic of Slovenia to the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia for the preparation of statistics on the trade in goods with non-EU Member States (Extrastat) with the Customs Administration of the republic of Slovenia, 7 May 2014 List of abbreviations ADP Social Science Data Archives AJPES Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Public Legal Records and Related Services ARRS Slovenian Research Agency ARSO Slovenian Environment Agency BiH Bosnia and Herzegovina BS Bank of Slovenia CEUVIZ Central Record of Participants in Education and Training DVK State Election Commission ECB European Central Bank EGR EuroGroups Register EHIS European Health Interview Survey EKC Contact Centre of the Slovenian Government ESA European System of Accounts ESCB European System of Central Banks ESS European Statistical System ESSC European Statistical System Committee EU European Union eVŠ Higher education information system FADN Farm Accountancy Data Network FATS Foreign Affiliates Statistics FDV Faculty of Social Sciences GDP gross domestic product GURS Surveying and Mapping Authority of the Republic of Slovenia HBS Household Budget Survey ICD International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems ICT information and communication technology IEA International Energy Agency IMAD Institute of Macroeconomic Analysis and Development IMF International Monetary Fund ISCED International Standard Classification of Education ISPAP information system for transmitting and analysing data on earnings in the public sector ITF International Transport Forum (operates within the OECD) IzVRS Institute for Water of the Republic of Slovenia KIS Agricultural Institute of Slovenia KLASIUS Classification System of Education and Training KTDP Classification of Therapeutic and Diagnostic Procedures LFS Labour Force Survey MDDSZ Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities MEETS Modernisation of the European Enterprise and Trade Statistics MF Ministry of Finance MFI Monetary Financial Institutions MGRT Ministry of Economic Development and Technology MIZŠ Ministry of Education, Science and Sport MJU Ministry of Public Administration MKGP Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food MNZ Ministry of the Interior MOP Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning MZ Ministry of Health NIJZ National Institute of Public Health OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development PRS Business Register of Slovenia R&D research and development SILC Statistics on Income and Living Conditions SIMSTAT Single Market Statistics SI-STAT SURS data portal SKD Standard Classification of Activities SKP Standard Classification of Occupations STAGE STAtistics and GEography SURS Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia UNECE United Nations Economic Commission for Europe UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations UVHVVR Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Food Safety, Veterinary and Plant Protection WHO World Health Organization ZPIZ Pension and Disability Insurance Institute of Slovenia ZRSZ Employment Service of Slovenia ZZZS Health Insurance Institute of Slovenia