Federal StatisticsExpert Groups

Statistical expert groups advise the federal statistics producers on issues related to specific subject areas. They bring added value to the work and projects of statistics producers by drawing on their members' extensive specialist knowledge. The expert groups have an advisory role. They are established depending on the needs of the Federal Statistical Office or those of other statistics producers.

The expert groups are made up of representatives from the Confederation, the cantons and municipalities, scientific circles, private business, social partners and the Swiss National Bank. They can be made up of up to 20 members. They are usually chaired by someone external to the FSO who has the necessary skills and knowledge in the area concerned. The expert groups meet at least once a year if possible.

Tasks of the expert groups:

• advisory activities among federal statistics producers on specific questions
• give their opinion on the schedule for work planned in the multi-annual statistical programme as well as on their specialist area
• discuss and give an opinion on documents presenting projects – usually detailed concepts – intended for statistics producers and the Federal Statistics Committee
• promote the exchange of ideas among members on topics and statistical projects of mutual interest.
  

At present, there are seven expert groups working on the following areas:

• Education and science
• Health statistics
• Crime statistics
• Social statistics
• Transport
• Economic statistics
• Balance of payments

In order to ensure better coordination, the Federal Statistics Committee, FEDESTAT and REGIOSTAT delegate one of their members to the various expert groups. In this way, practical needs can be communicated to these bodies and taken into consideration by them.

A distinction should be made between the expert groups and the support groups. The latter are created for specifical projects, and their mandate is limited by the project’s duration.