Ordering of federal statistics

(1) Federal statistics are ordered by statute, unless otherwise provided in this Act or another statutory provision. The statutory provision should also take into account the information needs of the Länder, including municipalities and associations of municipalities.
(2) The Federal Government is authorised, by statutory ordinance requiring the consent of the Bundesrat, to order federal statistics with a period of validity of up to three years, and to supplement federal statistics as regards the characteristics and the group of persons to be surveyed for a period of validity of up to three years, where the following conditions are met: 1. the results of the federal statistics must be necessary to fulfil particular federal purposes already established at the time of the survey, 2. the federal statistics may cover only a limited group of persons, 3. the anticipated costs of the respective federal statistics, excluding the costs of publication, must not exceed, for the Federation and the Länder including municipalities and associations of municipalities together, two million euro for surveys within one year. Economic and environmental statistics may be ordered with an obligation to provide information; other federal statistics may be ordered only without an obligation to provide information.
(2a) The Federal Government is authorised, by statutory ordinance requiring the consent of the Bundesrat, to order federal statistics, and to supplement federal statistics ordered by statute, where this is necessary to implement or apply legal acts of the European Union under Article 338 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Economic and environmental statistics may be ordered with an obligation to provide information; other federal statistics may be ordered only without an obligation to provide information.
(3) The Federal Government shall report to the German Bundestag every two years on the federal statistics ordered under subsections (2) and (2a), and on the federal statistics under section 7. The estimated costs incurred by the Federation and the Länder, including municipalities and associations of municipalities, must be set out. The burden on respondents should also be addressed.
(4) The Federal Government is authorised, by statutory ordinance requiring the consent of the Bundesrat, to suspend, for up to four years, the conduct of a federal statistic or the collection of individual characteristics, to extend its periodicity, to postpone survey dates, and to restrict the group of persons to be surveyed, where the results are no longer needed, or no longer needed in the level of detail or frequency originally envisaged, or where the factual conditions for a federal statistic have ceased to apply or have changed materially. The Federal Government is further authorised, by statutory ordinance requiring the consent of the Bundesrat, to change, for up to four years, from a survey with an obligation to provide information as provided for in a statutory provision to a survey without such an obligation, where and insofar as sufficient results of a federal statistic can also be achieved by a survey without an obligation to provide information.
(5) Federal statistics for which data are used exclusively from generally accessible sources do not require an order by statute or statutory ordinance. The same applies to federal statistics for which data are used exclusively from public registers, insofar as a statutory provision grants the Federal Statistical Office or the statistical offices of the Länder a special right of access to those registers.