EPA Revision & Dissemination Policy for Official European Waste Statistics

Version 1.0 published 10 November 2021

1.0 Revision Policy Checklist

To be executed whenever a revision is made and at the end of each reporting cycle.

1. Any results that are subject to revision have been highlighted in the release.
2. Stakeholders have been given advance notice of current and future planned revisions.
3. The EPA Waste Statistics Revisions Calendar is updated to ensure that any relevant information provided is current.
4. Detailed revisions practices for relevant outputs have been documented and summarised in background notes and any supporting methodological documents.
5. Data relating to the statistical release has been appropriately labelled so that all data prior and post revision is stored securely and is clearly identifiable.
6. Periodically analyse the scale of revisions comparing pre-revision with final data so that users can be informed on the scope and impact of the revisions.

1.1 Quality Statement

As per the EPA Quality Statement for Official European Waste Statistics, this Revision and Dissemination Policy adheres to the European Statistics Code of Practice.

1.2 Release Announcements

All regular EPA waste statistics releases are pre-announced on the EPA Waste Statistics Release Calendar. 

1.3 Statistical Disclosure Control

As detailed in the EPA Confidentiality Statement for Official European Waste Statistics, most waste data reported annually by licensees to the EPA are collected and used for multiple EPA purposes, including licence compliance, licensing, monitoring and various national and European reporting including Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR) and waste statistics reporting.  Since these waste data are not obtained exclusively for statistical reporting purposes, the data do not fall under statistical confidentiality provisions under the Statistics Act, 1993 or the Council Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics for data collected for EU statistical purposes.

Where specific subsets of EPA licensee data or waste data from other third-parties are obtained solely for statistical reporting purposes, the EPA applies strict statistical confidentiality provisions to these data.  Results are published in aggregated form and great care is taken to ensure that details relating to an identifiable person or enterprise are not inadvertently divulged.

1.4 Open Data

In accordance with the EPA Data Strategy 2021-2024 and the goal of leadership in environmental evidence and knowledge, published annual EPA waste statistics are made available for download in a clear and accessible manner on the EPA National Waste Statistics website.  Preliminary estimates are provided in a more timely fashion than complete, validated datasets in the ‘First Look’ Data section.

All archived web releases for previous years are made available in PFD format in the ‘Publications’ section of the EPA website, along with published reports from 1996 onwards.  Data saved on the EPA IT system are archived by the Waste Statistics Team in accordance with the EPA’s ICT Backup and Media Policy.

2.0 Types of Revision

In line with CSO General Revisions Policy 05/2021.

2.1 Planned routine revisions

Routine revisions are changes in published data which are related to the regular data production process.  The majority of revisions are planned, and include regular updates where it is the practice to publish preliminary estimates in advance of final estimates primarily due to:

• the receipt of late responses,
• updating estimates based on Eurostat quality feedback,
• the statistical production cycle,
• the availability of administrative sources for comparability checks and/or imputation.

 2.2 Planned major revisions

Data producers often take the opportunity of a forthcoming major revision to introduce methodological improvements. Therefore, it is common that major revisions are not determined by one single cause, but a combination of them. Major revisions are changes in published data, often substantial, due to one of the following reasons:

• changes to definitions, classifications and methodology are incorporated,
• updating / rebasing of the time series to reflect both the changes in the relative importance of sub-components and the insertion of new items into the statistical series,
• new data sources become available,
• cessation of existing data sources occurs.

 2.3 Unplanned revisions

Unplanned revisions generally occur when:

• published statistics, that are considered final, need to be revised due to the receipt of updated data that impacts significantly on the figures;existing data sources are suddenly lost;
• errors are detected;
• improved estimated data becomes available from other sources.

3.0 Revision policy for Waste Framework Directive reporting

4.0 Revision policy for OECD/Eurostat Municipal Waste Indicator reporting

5.0 Revision calendar items