Functions of the Federal Statistical Office

(1) Subject to other statutory provisions, the function of the Federal Statistical Office is 1. to prepare and further develop federal statistics, methodologically and technically, in consultation with the statistical offices of the Länder, 2. to coordinate the uniform and timely production of federal statistics by the Länder, and to safeguard the quality of the results of those statistics in cooperation with the statistical offices of the Länder, 3. to compile the results of federal statistics, in the required subject-matter and regional breakdown, for the Federation, and to publish and present them for general purposes, 4. to make individual data available for scientific purposes in accordance with this Act or another statutory provision; the competence of the Länder also to perform this function remains unaffected, 5. to produce federal statistics where and insofar as this is provided for in this or another federal statute, or the Länder concerned consent, 6. at the request of supreme federal authorities, to carry out supplementary processing for federal purposes, including the development and application of microsimulation models and microeconometric analyses, 7. to carry out special processing, insofar as the statistical offices of the Länder do not themselves carry out such processing, 8. to carry out tests and suitability examinations under section 5a(2) and (3), 9. on behalf of supreme federal authorities, to produce statistics under section 8, 10. to compile statistics of other states, the European Union and international organisations, and to publish and present their results for general purposes, 11. to coordinate the subject-matter, temporal and spatial alignment of federal statistics and the statistics referred to in number 9, 12. to support the Federal Government in preparing the federal statistics programme and the legal and general administrative provisions of the Federation that affect federal statistics, 13. to compile national accounts and other comprehensive systems of statistical data for federal purposes, and to publish and present them for general purposes, 14. to operate the Federal Statistical Information System and to participate in coordinating specialised databases of other federal bodies; the same applies insofar as the Federation is involved in corresponding projects outside the federal administration, 15. to participate, for the purpose of simplifying and improving data collection and processing for federal statistics, in federal numbering projects and efforts to automate administrative and court procedures; the same applies insofar as the Federation is involved in corresponding projects outside the federal administration, 16. to advise federal authorities on the award of research contracts relating to the collection and provision of statistical data, and, on behalf of supreme federal authorities, to carry out research contracts, prepare expert opinions and perform other statistical and similar work in the field of federal statistics, 17. to cooperate closely with the Deutsche Bundesbank in order to reduce the burden of data collection and ensure the quality and coherence of the production of statistics.
(2) The statistical offices of the Länder and other bodies entrusted with the production of federal statistics shall forward individual data to the Federal Statistical Office on request, insofar as this is necessary for the methodological and technical preparation of federal statistics and their further development under subsection (1) number 1, for safeguarding the quality of results under subsection (1) number 2, or for carrying out processing under subsection (1) numbers 6 and 7; the same applies to the performance of the corresponding functions of the Federal Statistical Office at supranational and international level.
(3) For Land statistics in whose uniform nationwide compilation a federal interest exists, the Federal Statistical Office may perform the functions under subsection (1) numbers 1 to 4, insofar as the Länder concerned consent.