News 9 Jun 2020

Joint usability of register data will improve by developing quality of data

Central government controllers of registers have started a data quality sub-project to enhance the usability of public data resources. The aim is to produce a model for a common quality framework for central government, by means of which the joint usability of data can be improved further. Statistics Finland is in charge of the sub-project.

The data quality project is part of the project on opening up and using public data coordinated by the Ministry of Finance, which creates an operating model for public administration to share public data more systematically, either as open data or for wider use through programming interfaces. The aim is to improve the quality and interoperability of the data to be utilised and opened. For this purpose, quality criteria facilitating their utilisation will be created for data resources in cooperation with Statistics Finland's sub-project.

“In the data quality sub-project, we will examine the quality frameworks currently in use and evaluate their functionality for new registers, such as the Incomes Register, the Koski register containing education data and the dwelling data system ASREK. The quality framework improves the coherence of data, broader usability to support decision-making in society and the goal of central government to place data in one location – data are collected only on a one-off basis”, says Statistics Finland's Director Mari Ylä-Jarkko.

The aim is to produce a common model with which other agencies can produce data for the public data resource. The quality framework model produced in the sub-project will be published as a public administration recommendation.

A large group of maintainers of central government registers and users of register data will participate in the sub-project to be implemented between 2020 and 2022. In addition to Statistics Finland, the participants include the Digital and Population Data Services Agency, the Social Insurance Institution, the National Land Survey of Finland, the National Board of Education, the Finnish Patent and Registration Office, Finnish Customs, the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, the State Treasury, and the Tax Administration.

Further information: Mari Ylä-Jarkko, Director, Business Statistics +358 29 551 3310