Interpretation

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires“advisory committee” means an advisory committee appointed by the Board under section 14; “Board” means the Board of Directors of the Institute established under section 7; “Chairperson” means– (a) in respect of the Board, the Chairperson of the Board and includes, in the circumstances specified in section 7 (2), the Deputy Chairperson of the Board or some other member of the Board appointed to act as Chairperson under that section; or (b) in respect of an advisory committee, the Chairperson of the advisory committee; 7 “confidential data” means data obtained by the Institute for the production of official statistics when such data allow statistical units to be identified directly or indirectly, thereby disclosing individual information; “copy” means the reproduction of a record or any part thereof by writing, photocopying, electronic, or some other means; “Director-General” means the officer of the Institute appointed under section 17; “directorates” mean directorates established pursuant to Regulations made by the Minister under section 43; “employee” means an employee of the Institute; “financial year” in respect of the Institute, means a period of twelve months ending on the 31st March of each year, Provided that the first financial year of the Institute shall commence immediately on the coming into force of this Act and shall end on the 31st March of the next following year; “functions” include powers and duties; “impartiality” means the objective and independent manner of producing official statistics free from any pressure from political or other interest groups, particularly as regards the selection of techniques, definitions and methodologies best suited to the attainment of the objectives as set out and implies the availability of statistics to all users; “Institute” means the Statistical Institute of Belize established under section 3; “local authority” means the Belize City Council, established under the Belize City Council Act, the Belmopan City Council established under the Belmopan City Council Act, any Town 8 Council established under the Town Councils Act, or any Village Council established under the Village Councils Act; “Minister” means the Minister responsible for statistics; “official statistics” means information obtained by processing data in order to characterize collective phenomena in a considered population in the framework of implementation of the business plan of the Institute; “population” means any set or subset of statistical units, whether such units are natural persons, legal persons or any other economic unit; “premises” include any dwelling, building, place, vessel or aircraft within or on territory which falls under the jurisdiction of Belize; “prescribed” means prescribed by Regulations or Orders made “production of official statistics” means all the activities necessary for the preparation, collection, storage processing, compilation, analysis and dissemination of statistical “public authority” means any government department, local authority, official board or committee and any other public body established by law; “public officer”, has the same meaning as is assigned to it by section 131 of the Belize Constitution, but does not include a Judge or a Magistrate; “record” includes any paper, photographic, electronic, or other mode of recording or storing information and any form, schedule, questionnaire, or any other such document; 9 “reliability” means that the statistics shall reflect as faithfully as possible the reality which they are designed to represent and implies that scientific criteria are used for the selection of sources, methods and procedures; and “statistics” includes, in addition to numerical data, all other which is necessary for the compilation, analysis and interpretation of data.