Mauritius
Statistics Act
Act 38 of 2000
- Commenced on 2 April 2001
- [This is the version of this document at 30 June 2017.]
1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Statistics Act.2. Interpretation
In this Act—"authorised officer" means a person appointed as such under section 6;"Bank of Mauritius" means the Bank of Mauritius established under section 3 of the Bank of Mauritius Act;"Board" or "Statistics Board" means the Statistics Board referred to in section 23;"census" means a census of population and dwellings;"contractor" means a person appointed under contract for carrying out, on behalf of the Director, duties relating to the collection, compilation, analysis, abstraction, publication, and dissemination of statistical information;"Director" means the Director of Statistics referred to in section 4;"member" means a member of the Board and includes the Chairperson;"Minister" means the Minister to whom responsibility for the subject of statistics is assigned;"official statistics" means statistics produced by—(a)Statistics Mauritius;(b)the Bank of Mauritius;(c)the Ministry responsible for the subject of health; and(d)such other organisation as may be approved by the Board;"public sector agency" means any Ministry or Government Department, local authority, or statutory body;"respondent" means a person who supplies, or is required to supply, statistical information;"return" means a book, document, form, card, tape, disc or storage medium on which the information required is entered or recorded, or is required to be entered or recorded, for statistical purposes;"sampling" means a statistical procedure whereby only a small proportion of the entire group is selected and its characteristics are statistically analysed to infer knowledge about the entire group;"statistics" means aggregated numerical information relating to demographic, economic, financial, environmental, social or similar matter, which is compiled and analysed according to relevant scientific and statistical methodology;"survey" includes a survey of undertakings or persons, whereby information is collected from all persons in a field of inquiry, or from a sample of them, wholly or primarily for statistical purposes;"undertaking" means an undertaking by way of a trade or business, whether or not the trade or business is carried out for profit, and includes a public sector agency and any other form of organisation or body of persons, as well as a branch of an undertaking;"University of Mauritius" means the University of Mauritius referred to in section 3 of the University of Mauritius Act.[S. 2 amended by s. 28 (a) of Act 20 of 2011 w.e.f. 31 August 2011.]3. Statistics Mauritius
4. Director of Statistics
5. Functions and powers of Director
6. Authorised officer
7. ***
[S. 7 repealed by s. 28 (e) of Act 20 of 2011 w.e.f. 31 August 2011.]8. Joint collections
9. Direction for taking of a census
10. Collection of other statistical information
11. Sampling
12. Limitation on right to require information
No person shall be required to supply any information under this Act which involves the disclosure of a technical process or trade secret in or relating to the undertaking of which he is the owner, or in the conduct or supervision of which he is engaged.13. Power to obtain information and other particulars
13A. Obligation to disclose information
14. Access to public and other records
15. Offences
16. Limitation period
A prosecution may not be instituted later than 2 years after the time when the subject matter of the prosecution arose, or 2 years after the time when the commission of the offence first became known to the prosecutor.17. Restriction on disclosure of information
18. Disclosure and dissemination of information
19. Disclosure for research or statistical purposes
20. Security of recorded information
Where the statistical information, which the Director collects under this Act from individual returns, worksheets, or any other confidential source, is to be copied or recorded by means of cards, tapes, discs, wires, films, or any other method, whether using encoded or plain language symbols for the processing, storage, or reproduction of particulars, the Director shall take such steps as are necessary to ensure the security and confidentiality of the statistical information.21. Destruction of individual forms and returns
The Director shall account for, cause to be recycled or destroyed and destroy under strict supervision, all individual census and survey forms and returns used for the purposes of this Act, and containing the name and address of a person or undertaking or business, after the data have been processed and validated, but not later than 5 years after the date of completion of a census or survey.[S. 21 amended by s. 28 (n) of Act 20 of 2011 w.e.f. 31 August 2011.]22. Confidentiality
23. The Board
24. Functions of Board
25. Meetings of Board
26. ***
[S. 26 repealed by s. 28 (q) of Act 20 of 2011 w.e.f. 31 August 2011.]27. ***
[S. 27 repealed by s. 28 (q) of Act 20 of 2011 w.e.f. 31 August 2011.]28. Regulations
28A. Saving
A reference in any enactment to the Central Statistics Office shall, at the commencement of this Act, be construed as a reference to Statistics Mauritius under this Act.[S. 28A inserted by s. 28 (s) of Act 20 of 2011 w.e.f. 31 August 2011.]29. ***
30. ***
History of this document
30 June 2017 this version
Consolidation
02 April 2001
Commenced