Official Statistics Act (2010)

This Act regulates the maintenance of official statistics. The purpose of official statistics is to reflect the situation of and changes in the society and to provide the society with information relevant to the demographic, social, economic and environmental development, including for preparing development plans and forecasts, developing different policies, conducting scientific and applied research, and making knowledge-based decisions. Among others, the Act provides for an agricultural census. The purpose of an agricultural census is to collect data relating to the activities of agricultural holdings of the state. Upon collection and processing of data in the course of an agricultural census, the producer of official statistics shall comply with the requirements prescribed in Regulation (EC) No 1166/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council on farm structure surveys and the survey on agricultural production methods and repealing Council Regulation (EEC) No 571/88 (OJ L 308, 24.11.2009, p. 27–46). The following additional data are collected and processed due to the domestic need for official statistics: (1) given names and surname, personal identification code (if available) and contact details of holders of agricultural holdings; (2) detailed data on agricultural crops with respect to holdings belonging to the sample of the statistical activity concerning crop farming; and (3) data supporting the quality of the census data.