Statistics Act


1988 Revised Edition






C
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STATISTICS ACT

Statistics Act CAP. 53 Arrangement of Sections




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C
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STATISTICS ACT

Arrangement of Sections
Section
1 Short Title. .......................................................................................................5
2 Interpretation....................................................................................................5
3 Statistics Department. ......................................................................................6
4 Powers and duties of Minister..........................................................................6
5 Government Statistician...................................................................................6
6 Temporary employees......................................................................................7
7 Oath of Office. .................................................................................................7
COLLECTION OF STATISTICS.........................................................................8
8 Rules and instructions. .....................................................................................8
9 Returns under Income Tax Act. .......................................................................9
10 Joint collection of statistics. .............................................................................9
11 Access to records. ..........................................................................................10
12 Evidence of appointment. ..............................................................................10
13 Presumption. ..................................................................................................10
SECRECY ........................................................................................................10
14 Prohibition against divulging information. ....................................................10
15 Information is privileged................................................................................12
OFFENCES AND PUNISHMENT.....................................................................12
16 Failure to fulfil or false declaration. ..............................................................12
17 Failure to provide reformation. ......................................................................13
18 Refusal to grant access to records. .................................................................13
19 Limitation.......................................................................................................14

Statistics Act CAP. 53 Section 1




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C
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STATISTICS ACT

Act 31 of 1978

AN ACT TO ENLARGE AND DEVELOP AN INTEGRATED AND
COMPREHENSIVE STATISTICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM AND TO

REGULATE ALL MATTERS PERTAINING THERETO

Commencement [28th September, 1979]

1 Short Title.
This Act may be cited as the Statistics Act.

2 Interpretation.
In this Act,

“department” or “departments of government” means any department,
branch, bureau, agency or other division of the Government of Tonga and
includes a statutory body;

“Minister” means the Minister designated from time to time by the
Cabinet to act as the Minister for the purposes of this Act;

“respondent” means a person corporate or unincorporate including a non
profit making institution in respect of whom or in respect of whose
activities any report or information is sought or provided pursuant to
this Act.

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3 Statistics Department.
There shall continue to be a department of the Government to be known as the
Statistics Department which shall be the central statistical authority for the
Government whose purpose is to develop an integrated and comprehensive
statistical information system to serve the needs of economic and social
development, planning and management of the Kingdom and whose
duties are —

(a) to collect, compile, analyse and disseminate statistics and related
information on the activities and condition of the people and their
institutions;

(b) to ensure co-ordination of the operations of departments of
government in the collection, compilation and dissemination of
statistics and related information, with particular regard to —
(i) the avoidance of duplication in the collection by departments

of government of information for statistical purposes;
(ii) the attainment of compatibility between, and the integration

of, statistics compiled by departments of government; and
(iii) the maximum possible utilization, for statistical purposes, of

information and means of collection of information, available
to departments of government;

(c) to formulate, and ensure compliance with, standards for the
carrying out by departments of government of operations for
statistical purposes;

(d) to provide advice and assistance to departments of government in
relation to statistics; and

(e) generally to promote and develop integrated social and economic
statistics for Tonga.

4 Powers and duties of Minister.
(1) The Minister may issue directions for the implementation of this Act.

(2) The Minister shall at the commencement of the Legislative Assembly
session in each year submit a report on the activities of the Statistics
Department in the preceding calendar year.

5 Government Statistician.
(1) The Cabinet by note in the Gazette may appoint a professional officer

called the Government Statistician, to be responsible to the Minister for
the purpose of this Act and to hold office during pleasure.

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(2) The Government Statistician shall —
(a) advise on matters pertaining to statistical programs of the

departments of the government of Tonga and confer with such
departments to that end; and

(b) under the direction of the Minister, exercise the authority to
supervise generally the administration of this Act and control the
operations and staff of the Statistics Department.

6 Temporary employees.
(1) The Minister may employ, from time to time, in the manner authorized by

law, such commissioners, enumerators, agents or other persons and for
such period as are necessary to collect for the Statistics Department such
statistics and information as he deems useful and in the public interest
relating to such activities as he may determine, and the duties of such
commissioners, enumerators, agents or other persons shall be those duties
prescribed by him.

Civil servants.

(2) The Minister may with the consent of the Prime Minister for such periods
as he may determine, use the services of any employee of the civil service
of Tonga in the exercise or performance of any duty, power or function of
the Statistics Department or officer of the Statistics Department under this
or any other Act, and any person whose services are so used shall, for the
purposes of this Act, be deemed to be a person employed under this Act.

Contracted services and research.

(3) Any persons authorized by the Government Statistician or contracted to
perform special services for the Government Statistician pursuant to this
Act and the employees and agents of such persons shall for the purposes
of this Act be deemed to be persons employed under this Act while
performing such services.

7 Oath of Office.
(1) The Government Statistician and every person employed or deemed to be

employed pursuant to this Act shall, before entering upon his duties, take
and subscribe the following oath or affirmation:

I,. ......................................... do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will
faithfully and honestly fulfil my duties as an employee of the Statistics
Department in conformity with the requirements of the Statistics Act and
of all rules and instructions thereunder and that I will not without due

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authority in that behalf disclose or make known any matter or thing that
comes to my knowledge by reason of my employment.

Attestation.

(2) The oath or affirmation set out in subsection (1) shall be taken before such
person, and returned and recorded in such manner, as the Minister may
direct.

COLLECTION OF STATISTICS

8 Rules and instructions.
(1) The Minister on the advice of the Government Statistician may, by

regulation prescribe such rules, instructions, schedules, and forms as he
deems requisite for conducting the work and business of the Statistics
Department collecting, compiling and publishing of statistics and other
information and the taking of any census:

Provided that in the taking of a national population census, such
regulations must be approved by Cabinet.

Estimates.

(2) The Government Statistician may request a respondent to supply estimates
which shall be made responsibly and in good faith where the facts are not
available.

Acquiring Statistical data.

(3) In lieu of or in addition to using agents or employees for the collection of
statistics under this Act, the Government Statistician may —
(a) prescribe that a form be sent to a person from whom information

authorized to be obtained under this Act is sought. Delivery by post
at any house, office or place of business or post box of any schedule
or form, shall constitute a sufficient requirement, notwithstanding
that the occupant or box renter is not personally named in the
schedule or personally served therewith;

(b) where there are no official records of persons from whom
information is required, notification by public notice in the Gazette
and other appropriate places stating a requirement from a class of
persons or respondents together with the availability of schedules or
forms at stated public offices, shall constitute a sufficient
requirement for such persons to make a return;

and such persons shall answer the inquiries on the form and return it to the
Statistics Department, properly certified as accurate, returned by post if so
required, not later than the time prescribed on the form. In the absence of
the occupant of the house or business premises the requirement falls on

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another member of the family or on the agent of the owner of the
business.

9 Returns under Income Tax Act.
(1) For the purposes of this Act and subject to subsection (1) of section 14 —

(a) the Government Statistician or any officer of the Statistics
Department authorized by him to do so may inspect and have
access to any returns, certificates, statements, documents, or other
records obtained for the purpose of the Income Tax Act; and

(b) the Commissioner of Inland Revenue shall cause such returns,
certificates, statements, documents or other records to be made
available to the Government Statistician or person authorized by
him to inspect such records in such manner and at such time and
place as may be prescribed upon the recommendation of the
Minister for Finance.

Return of exports and imports.

(2) For the purposes of this Act and subject to subsection (1) of section 14,
the Collector of Customs shall cause to be sent to the Government
Statistician returns of imports and exports into and from Tonga in a form
suitable for statistical analysis.

10 Joint collection of statistics.
(1) The Minister may enter into an agreement with any Department or other

corporation for the exchange of information collected jointly with such
department or corporation from a respondent and for subsequent
tabulation or publication based on such information.

(2) An agreement under subsection (1) shall provide that: the respondent shall
be informed that the information is being collected jointly on behalf of the
Statistics Department and the department or corporation, as the case may
be, by a notice to that effect.

What exchange may include.

(3) An exchange of information pursuant to this section may, subject to
subsection (2), include replies to original inquiries and supplementary
information provided by a respondent to the Statistics Department and the
department or corporation jointly collecting the information.

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11 Access to records.
A person having information or the custody or charge of any documents or
records that are maintained in any department, corporation, business or
organization, from which information sought in respect of the objects of this Act
can be obtained or that would aid in the completion or correction thereof, shall
provide or grant access thereto for these purposes to a person authorized by the
Government Statistician to obtain such information or such aid in the completion
or correction of such information. Any agent in Tonga of a foreign principal
must provide the information required or produce evidence that he has been
unable to obtain the information.

12 Evidence of appointment.
Any letter purporting to be signed by the Prime Minister, the Minister, the
Government Statistician or any person who may be authorized by the Minister
for such purpose, and giving notice of any appointment or removal of, or setting
forth any instructions to any person employed in the execution of any duty under
this Act is evidence of such appointment, removal or instructions, and that such
letter was signed and addressed as it purports to be.

13 Presumption.
Any document or paper, written or printed, purporting to be a form authorized
for use in the taking of a census or the collection of statistics or other
information, or purporting to set forth any instructions relating thereto, that is
produced by any person employed in the execution of any duty under this Act as
being such form or as setting forth instructions, shall be presumed to have been
supplied by the proper authority to the person so producing it, and is evidence of
all instructions therein set forth.

SECRECY

14 Prohibition against divulging information.
(1) Subject to this Section and except for the purposes of a prosecution under

this Act —
(a) no persons, other than a person employed or deemed to be

employed under this Act, and sworn under section 7, shall be
permitted to examine any identifiable individual return made for the
purposes of this Act; and

(b) no person who has been sworn under section 7 shall disclose or
knowingly cause to be disclosed, by any means, any information

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obtained under this Act, without the authority of the Minister or the
Government Statistician in exercise of their powers under this Act;

(c) all returns and documents containing information obtained under
this Act which enable identification of individuals or establishments
shall be kept at all times in a manner reasonably calculated to
prevent any unauthorized person having access thereto.

Exception to prohibition.

(2) The Minister may, by order, authorize the particulars of any information
collected jointly with a department or corporation pursuant to an
agreement under section 10 to be communicated to the department or
corporation that was party to the collecting of the information.

(3) The Government Statistician may authorize the following information to
be disclosed —
(a) information collected by persons, organizations or departments for

their own purposes and communicated to the Statistics Department
before or after this section comes into force, but such information
when communicated to the Statistics Department shall be subject to
the same secrecy requirements to which it was subject when
collected and may only be disclosed by the Statistics Department in
the manner and to the extent agreed upon by the collector thereof
and the Government Statistician;

(b) information relating to a person or organization in respect of which
disclosure is consented to in writing by the person or organization
concerned;

(c) information relating to a business in respect of which disclosure is
consented to in writing by the owner;

(d) information available to the public under any statutory or other law;
(e) information relating to any hospital, mental institution, library,

educational institution or welfare institution except particulars
arranged in such a manner that it is possible to relate such
particulars to any individual patient, inmate or other person in the
care of any such institution;

(f) information in the form of an index or list of the names and
addresses of individual establishments, firms or businesses, the
statistical classification of products they produced, manufactured,
processed, transported, stored, purchased or sold, or the services
provided and the numbers of employees or persons engaged or
constituting their work force;

(g) information relating to any carrier or public utility;

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(h) information in the form of a statistical group which may
unavoidably be indirectly identifiable due to the small number of
establishments involved.

(4) In this section- —

“public utility” means any person or association of persons that owns,
operates or manages an undertaking —

(i) for the supply, transmission or distribution of gas, electricity
or water;

(ii) for the collection and disposal of garbage or sewage or for
the control of pollution;

(iii) for the transmission, omission, reception or conveyance of
information by any telecommunication system or;

(iv) for the provision of postal services.

15 Information is privileged.
(1) Except in respect of a prosecution under this Act, any return made to the

Statistics Department pursuant to this Act and any copy of the return in
the possession of the respondent is privileged and shall not be used as
evidence in any proceedings whatever, and no person having made the
declaration under section 7 shall by an order of any Court, tribunal or
other body be required in any proceedings whatever to give oral testimony
or to produce any return or document of record with respect to any
information obtained in the course of administration of this Act.

Taxation.

(2) No return made under this Act may be used for or in connection with the
assessment or levy of any tax imposed by the Government of Tonga and
may not be used in evidence of such assessment.

Application of section.

(3) This section applies in respect of any information that the Statistics
Department is prohibited by this Act from disclosing or that may only be
disclosed pursuant to an authorization under subsection (2) or (3) of
section 14.

OFFENCES AND PUNISHMENT

16 Failure to fulfil or false declaration.
Every person who, after taking the oath, set out in subsection (1) of section 7 —

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(a) fails to fulfil his duty, or wilfully makes any false declaration,
statement or return in the performance of his duties;

(b) in the pretended performance of his duties, obtains or seeks to
obtain information that he is not duly authorized to obtain, or

(c) contravenes subsection (1) of section 14,

is guilty of an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $200 or
to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months or to both.

17 Failure to provide reformation.
Every person who, without lawful excuse —

(a) refuses or neglects to answer, or wilfully answers falsely, any
question requisite for obtaining any information sought in respect of
the object of this Act or pertinent thereto that has been asked of him
by any person employed or deemed to be employed under this
Act, or

(b) refuses or neglects to furnish any information or to fill in to the best
of his knowledge and belief any schedule or form that he has been
required to fill in, and to return the same when and as required of
him pursuant to this Act, or knowingly gives false or misleading
information or practices any other deception thereunder,

is, for every such refusal or neglect, or false answer or deception, guilty of an
offence and is liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $100 or to
imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months or to both.

18 Refusal to grant access to records.
Every person —

(a) who, having the custody or charge of any documents or records that
are maintained in any department or in any corporation, business or
organization from which information sought in respect of the
objects of this Act can be obtained or that would aid in the
completion or correction thereof, refuses or neglects to grant access
thereto to any person authorized for the purpose by the Government
Statistician, or

(b) who otherwise in any way wilfully obstructs, including refusing
entry to offices or seeks to obstruct any person employed in the
execution of any duty under this Act, is guilty of an offence and is
liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $100 or to
imprisonment for a term not exceeding 3 months.

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19 Limitation.
Proceedings shall be by way of summary conviction in respect of an offence
under this Act and may be instituted at any time within one year after the time
when the subject matter of the proceedings arose.