In the ESS, quality is assessed and reported based on standardised rules and reporting structures. The corresponding standard is the ESS Handbook for Quality and Metadata Reports (EHQMR).
As a standard, this handbook promotes spreading good practices for quality and metadata reporting as well as harmonised quality reporting across statistical processes and EU members. It also supports compliance with the European Statistics Code of Practice.
The handbook and its standards are applicable to Eurostat, national statistical institutes, and other national authorities that are producers, compilers and disseminators of European statistics. It provides guidelines for producer and user reports within the overarching SIMS framework. The former type of report focuses on quality aspects, the latter on satisfying user needs for metadata, i.e. information about the data. However, both types of reports comprise metadata and both include quality metadata.
A series of terminology papers and glossaries exist in the ESS. The main terms used and referred to in the field of quality are included in the quality glossary.
