Monitoring of the legislature plan

The purpose of the legislature indicators is to observe the objectives defined by the Federal Council and Parliament in the 2019-2023 Legislature Plan. These indicators are taken from a monitoring system that encompasses all areas of federal tasks. The whole system contains 170 indicators from which the 52 legislature indicators were selected.

The monitoring system was created by the Federal Statistical Office at the request of the Federal Chancellery.

The legislature indicators are used for the drafting of the situation analysis in the Federal Council's annual report.

Legislature Indicators

Detailed information on the legislature indicators are available in German, French or Italian.  

Further information

Publications

Links

Federal Chancellery

Federal Chancellery – Federal Council's annual report
(not available in English)

Federal Chancellery – Legislature Plan
(not available in English)

The Federal Council – Political agenda
Legislature Plan 2015-2019 (not available in English)

Statistical sources and concepts

Objective, structure and limits

Indicators of the legislature plan

The indicators of the legislature plan are used to observe the objectives that the Federal Council and Parliament have defined in the legislature plan. These indicators are taken from a monitoring system that contains nearly 150 indicators from all areas of federal tasks. The system also provides the necessary statistical information for the drafting of the situation analysis in the Federal Council's annual reports and in the Federal Council’s dispatch on the legislature plan.

Structure of the monitoring system

The monitoring system is a response to the requirements in the Parliament Act. These stipulate that the achievement of legislature objectives should be regularly monitored by means of indicators. A monitoring system is used to collect, analyse and present information in order to monitor the extent and direction of changes in a specific topic on a continual and long-term basis. All indicators in the monitoring system refer to the overarching objectives and legal bases (acts, dispatches, strategies) in the Confederation's task catalogue which is published in the legislature financial plan (appendix 4). The indicators were selected in close cooperation with all departments and concerned offices. The indicators comply with the principles of official statistics (including independence, neutrality, coherence, transparency). Out of the approximately 150 indicators in the system, the Federal Chancellery – in collaboration with the departments –, selected the legislature indicators which optimally matched the quantifiable objectives of the legislature plan.

Limits in the monitoring of the Federal Council’s objectives

The monitoring of the Federal Council's objectives is limited by the fact that the strategic objectives of the legislature plan are related to diverse broad topics. A limited number of indicators can thus only cover a particular aspect of a strategic objective. Moreover the system functions as a monitoring system and does not lend itself to the evaluation or controlling of political programmes or concrete political measures.

Publication

The legislature indicators are published on the FSO website. They are regularly updated as new data becomes available. The list of all the system’s indicators is published in the project’s report. They are regularly updated as new data becomes available. The list of all the system’s indicators is published in the project’s report.

Fact sheet