Extracts from Statistics Act 1975

Statistics Act 1975

Commenced: 24 April 1975

Interpretation

2. Interpretation---In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,---

Statistical survey'' means a survey of undertakings, or of the public of New Zealand, whereby information is collected from all persons in a field of inquiry or from a sample thereof, by a Government Department pursuant to the authority of this Act or any other Act, or without specific provision in any Act, wholly
or primarily for the purpose of processing and summarising by appropriate statistical procedures and publishing the results of the survey in some statistical form:

Section 6 Minister to approve all statistical surveys

6. Minister to approve all statistical surveys---

1. No Government Department shall commence or commission any statistical survey or make a substantial alteration to an already existing survey without the approval of the Minister: Provided that the Minister, after receiving a report from the Statistician, made after consultation with an appropriate officer of the Government Department concerned, may, in any specific or general case, waive or relax the duty under this subsection in respect of that Government Department.
2. All applications for approval to conduct a statistical survey or make substantial alteration to an existing one shall be made in terms of paragraph (g) or paragraph (h) of section 14 of this Act.
3. Statistical surveys of the kind provided for by this Act that are being collected, compiled, analysed, abstracted, or published by or on behalf of the Department or by any other Government Department at the commencement of this Act shall continue to be collected, compiled, analysed, abstracted, and published by the Department or the other Government Department that was collecting, compiling, analysing, abstracting, or publishing them at the commencement of this Act as if they had been approved by the Minister in terms of this Act unless and until the Minister, after receiving a report from the Statistician, made after consultation with an appropriate officer of the Government Department concerned, decides otherwise.

Section 14 Duties of Government Statistician

14. Duties of Government Statistician---The duties of the Statistician shall be:

1. To make such reports to the Minister as are required by this Act, which reports shall have regards to the needs of user Departments; and, where consultations have been held, shall include the results of such consultations:
2. To advise the Minister on statistical policy matters, and where appropriate to confer with appropriate officers of other Government Departments to that end:
3. To keep the Minister informed of the statistical projects of all Government Departments, and to provide, where appropriate after consultation with an appropriate officer of any other Government Department concerned, any explanation required of the Statistician by the Minister of the purpose, scheme,
   methodology, and usefulness of any existing or proposed official statistical project:
4. To collect, with the approval of the Minister, information concerning any or all of the matters specified in section 4 of this Act:
5. To compile, analyse, abstract, and publish, with or without comments, official statistics:
6. To advise other Government Departments on the conception of statistical projects initiated or carried on by them, and to promote the observance of approved statistical standards by those Government Departments: 
7. To consult with appropriate officers of other Government Departments on the need for, and the scope, procedure, and form of any existing or proposed statistical survey being or to be carried out by the Departments; and to make a report to the Minister on the necessity for and the scope of any such survey
   and the Government Department or Departments to be responsible for the survey: 
8. To make, after consultation with an appropriate officer of any other Government Department concerned, a report to the Minister on the need for the continuance or discontinuance or the variation of any current collections of official statistics: 
9. To define, lay down, and promote standard concepts, procedures, definitions, and classifications for use in official statistics: 
10. To make or construct such estimates, forecasts, projections, and statistical models as the Statistician may from time to time consider necessary: 
11. To take the census of population and dwellings of New Zealand as provided for in Part III of this Act: 
12. To examine and comment, where the Statistician considers necessary, on the interpretation and validity of any published unofficial statistics; and to publish any such statistics and comment thereon as the Statistician considers necessary: 
13. To carry out such investigations, do all such things, and provide such certificates, as may be required of him by any other Act: 
14. To supply, where the Statistician considers appropriate, specifications of the methods, procedures, and definitions used in the collection and preparation of the official statistics he produces, subject to section 37 of this Act. Cf. 1955, No. 45, ss. 3, 4 (2).