The Management Board acts as the primary decision making committee within the Central Statistics Office and provides the leadership and management required at a corporate level. The Management Board sets the vision and strategic direction for the organisation, taking into account, as far as possible, customer, staff and all other relevant stakeholder views. The Management Board comprises of the Director General (Chair), the Assistant Directors General and Director. Detailed Terms of Reference for the Management Board of the Central Statistics Office are at Appendix 2.
CSO updated its corporate governance arrangements in 2015. The CSO’s Management Board has devolved responsibility to various governance boards within the Office to administer the oversight role in a more structured and focussed manner.
A Transformation and Performance Division was created in 2015 to assist the Management Board in planning, delivery, measurement and review of CSO outputs and goals. The division developed a transformation programme in conjunction with staff in 2015. The Management Board has decided on the prioritisation actions required to deliver the transformation programme with enhanced models/processes of statistical delivery and improved organisational capability. The various governance boards will assist with this task. All of these governance boards report directly to the Management Board and are detailed below.
• Transformation Programme Board
The Transformation Programme Board (TPB) is one of the governance structures established by the Management Board and has been set up to ensure there is central coordination of all transformation activity. The TPB is accountable to the Management Board and is responsible for the overall governance of the transformation programme in the CSO.
The main drivers of the transformation programme are internal and external strategies set out in CSO 2020, the EU Peer Review report and CSO Action Plan, the CSO Statement of Strategy 2015-2017 and the National Statistics Board's Strategy for Statistics 2015-2020. The TPB, supported by Transformation and Performance division, coordinates and guides all transformation projects so that each initiative is aligned to the overarching strategies and the CSO Business Operating Model.
• Project Governance Board
The CSO has a number of projects in operation throughout the Office. Until 2015, the Management Board fulfilled the role of oversight for the CSO 2020 projects and also the general business area projects. Increased workload, competing priorities and other developments meant that the Management Board decided that it was appropriate to establish new bodies to take on this oversight role in a more structured and focused manner. The more general business area projects are handled through a Project Governance Board (PGB).
• Household Survey Development Board
The Household Survey Development Board is responsible for a large multi-faceted project that aims to create a new household survey environment to meet additional national and international needs for a wider range of social statistics in the most effective and efficient manner possible.
• Census 2016
The Census 2016 board is responsible for the organisation of the 2016 Census, which will be held on the 24th of April 2016. The census is the largest statistical operation undertaken by the CSO. It is also the most exacting, since the fieldwork must be completed over a relatively short period and a thorough account of everybody in the country on census night must be obtained.
• IT Governance Board
The IT Governance Board is responsible and accountable to the Management Board for the overall governance of IT within the CSO - this includes central, Census and end user IT. The purpose of the board is to ensure the strategic alignment of IT with the business such that the maximum business value is achieved through the development and maintenance of effective IT control and accountability, service management and risk management – this includes ensuring the development and delivery of the IT strategy
• Editorial Board
The Editorial Board was established in 2015 to advise on dissemination policies, to carry out periodic post hoc reviews of standards, to provide advice on the template and standards for electronic releases, e-publications, print publications and the use of visualization and to develop a schedule and procedure for the creation and approval of significant new dissemination products.
• Confidentiality and Data Security Committee
The Confidentiality and Data Security committee (CDSC) co-ordinates the implementation by the CSO of its obligations relating to statistical confidentiality and data security (in line with the requirements of Part V of the Statistics Act, 1993 and of the Data Protection Acts (1988 and 2003).
Overview of governance arrangements that span organisational boundaries
The Director General of the CSO now has responsibility for the coordination of the statistical activities of all national authorities that are responsible for the development, production and dissemination of European statistics following a change in EU law which legally broadens the role of the CSO and that of its Director General - Regulation (EU) 2015/759 amending Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European Statistics;
The new EU legislation has fundamentally changed the role of the CSO, and that of its Director General. Following this legislation, the Director General of the CSO now has responsibility for coordinating and overseeing the quality of all European Official Statistics in Ireland. At present there are fifteen public sector bodies which produce European statistics. It is now the responsibility of the CSO to ensure that these bodies are adhering to the quality and methodological standards set out by the EU and detailed in the European Statistics Code of Practice. The CSO is currently developing a work programme to implement the changes. Appropriate governance structures will have to be developed in response to this legislative change.
Under Section 10 the Statistics Act, the CSO has authority to co-ordinate official statistics compiled by other public authorities and to assess and realise the statistical potential of their administrative records. Under Sections 30 and 31 of the Act, the CSO also has powers of access to the records of public authorities, for statistical purposes, and to obtain the co-operation of public authorities in developing the statistical potential of administrative records.
In November 2011, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform recognized that good quality data and information was essential to deliver on their actions of improving customer services and public sector efficiency. As part of this plan, the CSO was assigned the task of developing ‘a code of practice and standards for the gathering and use of data for statistical purposes in the Public Service’. The CSO developed the Irish Statistical Code of Practice (ISSCoP), which sets out a standard for statistical production and dissemination of Official Statistics by other Public Sector organisations. The ISSCoP was launched in November 2013 and this was a first step in formalisation of the coordinating role of the CSO within the ISS. As the CSO takes on the additional demands created by EU Regulation 2015/759, additional appropriate governance structures will have to be put in place.
Memorandums of Understanding are formal agreements between the CSO and other Government Departments or bodies which enhance data cooperation between the two parties to the agreement and helps to fulfill statistical requirements of European legislation, reduce administrative burden on business and meet national needs for statistics. Memoranda of Understanding have been signed between the CSO and; Revenue; Companies Registration Office; Central Bank; Department of Finance; Department of Health; Environmental Protection Agency; Higher Education Authority, the Department of Social Protection, an Garda Siochana, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Irish Prison Service, and Quality and Qualifications Ireland. The details are available on the CSO website.
The CSO is involved with a number of Liaison Groups with the broad aim of improving communications with the Office’s key stakeholders, both users and data respondents.
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