National Statistics Office

Directorate B: Business Statistics

Unit B2: Short-term Business Statistics

National Statistics Office, Lascaris Valletta, VLT 2000, Malta

Short-term statistics provide two types of indices for building permits. The first indicator is the dwellings number index, which reflects the evolution in terms of the number of dwellings. The second indicator, the floor area index reflects the development of the useful floor area for which the building permits are issued. 

The variables cover the sum of (CC111 and 112) (i.e. CC 11 excluding CC113 = F _CC11_X_CC113), and breakdown into (i) CC 111 (=F_CC111), and CC 112 (=F_CC112). CC refers to the CLASSIFICATION OF TYPES OF CONSTRUCTIONS.

The classification system used is the CLASSIFICATION OF TYPES OF CONSTRUCTIONS. 

NACE Division 41 according to NACE Rev. 2.

The indices for building permits are business cycle indicators that provide information on the development of granted building permits.

Data are provided in number of dwellings and useful floor area in square metres.

The Maltese  Planning Authority (PA) issues the permits.

There is only one administrator (Planning Authority) that collect data regarding building permits in Malta.

The indicator covers the national territory of the Maltese Islands.

Data are provided from 2000.

Not applicable. Data are currently provided in numbers but converted to base year 2015 by Eurostat. 

The unit of measure is the number of dwellings/useful floor area. In the Maltese Islands, building permits are issued by the Maltese Planning Authority (PA).

The data are provided and disseminated on a montly basis.

The NSO was established by virtue of the Malta Statistics Authority Act XXIV of 2000 and replaced the Central Office of Statistics as from 1 March 2001. 

https://legislation.mt/eli/cap/422/eng/pdf

On a European level, the mandate is established by virtue of the European Business Statistics Regulations 2019/2152 and 2020/1197.

Data Sharing matters are governed by the Malta Statistics Authority Act XXIV of 2000. Data are transmitted to Eurostat.

Apart from the established legislative framework, the NSO is also guided by an internal general confidentiality policy. Data tagged as confidential are not available for publication.

Confidentiality matters are regulated by the Malta Statistics Authority Act XXIV of 2000. Such data are marked as such.

An advanced release calendar is published on the NSO website.

All releases are published and disseminated at 1100 hrs as scheduled in the Advance Release Calendar. The calendar is published on the NSO website and includes a 3 month advance notice (the current month and the next two months).

https://nso.gov.mt/calendars/

No local news release is issued for these indicators.

National statistical releases are issued according to the release calendar and are made available to all users simultaneously. All releases are posted on the organisation's website, www.nso.gov.mt.

Eurostat transmissions for these indices are carried out on a monthly basis and 60 days after the end of the reference period. No national news releases are carried out.

There is no news release for these indices.

The short-term statistics only publishes its figures in an annual compendium named Malta in Figures or Trends in Malta. These can be accessed from the NSO website: www.nso.gov.mt.

The NSO website offers an online statistical database (StatDB) that provides a more in-depth analysis for the more expert statistical user or researcher. The StatDB requires registration as only registered users can extract data from the database. Registration is free-of-charge. These indicators are currently not available in this format.

In general, index results made available to Eurostat ensure a sufficient degree of representativeness of data. More detailed data than that published locally and internationally are available on request but are subject to the confidentiality clauses.

In such cases, data are provided in index form. Micro data are not provided to users.

Data are transmitted to Eurostat on a monthly basis.

The main document used for the production of this index are the following:

European Business Statistics Regulation, 2021

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/en/web/products-manuals-and-guidelines/-/ks-gq-21-001

Not available.

The NSO quality assurance principles are developed according to the ESS Handbook for Quality Reports (2014). 

Aspects of quality are divided into several steps. These are specifying needs, designing and building data instruments and collecting, processing, analysing, disseminating, archiving and evaluating data. The main guiding principles in quality management are found in the :

European Statistics Code of Practice - https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/quality/european-quality-standards/european-statistics-code-of-practice

Quality Assurance Framework of the ESS - http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/64157/4392716/ESS-QAF-V1-2final.pdf/bbf5970c-1adf-46c8-afc3-58ce177a0646

Overall the quality of the index is very good and very reliable.

Eurostat is the main user of this index.

Not available.

Data are compliant with relevant European and local regulations and requirements are fully fulfilled.

The overall accuracy of the indicator is considered to be of good quality. 

Sampling error is negligible, non-sampling error is small and the first estimates are not biased.

Data comes from the Maltese Planning Authority, an administrative source. Thr data is a census.

The response rate is 100% since all data are provided.

Data for this variable is published according to the European Businnes Statistics Regulation. The data is transmitted one quarter after the end of the reference period.

The NSO is committed to adhere to the timelines established by the European Business Statistics Regulations 2019/2152 and 2020/1197 and also issues news releases according to its pre-published calendar.

All deadlines were respected during the course of the year.

To ensure geographical comparability across member states the index is compiled according to the STS Regulations and STS Methodological Guidelines. Minor methodological deviations may exist due to specific conditions that apply to each member state.

There were no break in series.

Data are not compared with any other source.

Aggregates are consistent with the other components.

Data burden is considered high but no data are available.

The same revision policy is applied to both data released nationally and that sent to Eurostat.

There are no major revisions related to this variable and in general not even minor revisions are done.

In general, no revision is done to the data. Hence, calculations of certain Quality Performance Indicators (QPIs) like Mean Revision, Mean Absolute Revision and Relative Mean Absolute Revision are not calculated.

Permits data are directly received from the Malta Environment and Planning Authority.

Monthly.

Data are collected directly from MEPA on a monthly basis in electronic format by email.

Validations of format and file structure checks and intra-dataset checks are checked with the use of in-house excel sheets and access databases.

Revisions analysis is also carried out for every data transmission sent to Eurostat using in-house access queries. When data revisions are significantly large, a short explanation is also given to Eurostat.

Absolute values are used and there is no need for estimation methods, since the total number of dwellings and square metres are provided.

The plan is to convert the data into index form.

Data are not adjusted.

Not available