Legal basis of public statistics in Switzerland
The Switzerland's official statistics has its basis in the Swiss Federal Constitution . This contains the statistics article (Art. 65) on mandate and competencies in the field of statistics.
The legal basis of public statistics in Switzerland is regulated in more detail in the Federal Statistics Act of 9 October 1992. The Federal Statistics Act formulates the tasks and organization of federal statistics as well as the basis for data acquisition, publications and services. In particular, it describes the principles of data protection .
There is a separate law for the census as the largest and most traditional statistical survey (dated June 22, 2007). This also applies to the simplified data collection mentioned in the constitutional article thanks to harmonized registers of residents and other official person registers.
Various ordinances deepen the provisions in the aforementioned laws; for example with regard to the organization of federal statistics, the implementation of federal statistical surveys, the fees for statistical services by federal administrative units, the business and company register and the federal register of buildings and apartments.
To the creation of the legal basis
On July 23, 1870, Parliament passed a law on official statistical recordings in Switzerland, limited to organizational issues. On the basis of this law, however, the statistics are expanded inconsistently and unsystematically.
The Federal Statistics Act of October 9, 1992 replaces the Act of 1870 and forms a modern basis for Swiss statistics. Important new points in the 1992 law are the coordination function of the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) as the central statistical office in the Confederation, the creation of a statistical multi-year program for overall planning of Swiss statistics and the appointment of the Federal Statistics Commission as an advisory body to the Federal Council .
The new Federal Constitution of April 18, 1999 contains an article on statistics for the first time (Art. 65). While in the old Federal Constitution the federal competence in the field of statistics was still subject-specific, Article 65 of the Federal Constitution of 1999 transfers general statistical competence to the federal government. The federal government should collect the necessary statistical data on the state and development of the population, economy, society, education, research, space and the environment in Switzerland. However, this does not exclude statistical surveys by the cantons for their own area - the statistical competence is a so-called parallel competence, which allows the federal government and the cantons to work in parallel in the field of statistics.
From the Federal Statistics Act (BStatG)
- General provisions
- Authority to issue orders and participation
- Organization of federal statistics
- Data protection and data safety
- Publications and services
- Criminal provisions
- Final provisions
Effective date: August 1, 1993 (Federal Council decision of June 30, 1993)