Public Information Bulletin

Article 1
The Law determines the principles and creates the basis for reliable, objective, professional and independent conducting of statistical surveys, the results of which have the character of official statistical data, and it determines the organisation and procedures of conducting those surveys as well as the scope of responsibilities related to them.

Article 2
The terms used in this Law mean:

Article 3
The official statistics shall provide reliable, objective and systematic information for the society, the state and public administration bodies and economic entities on the economic, demographic and social situation and the environment.

Article 4
1. The statistical surveys of official statistics shall refer to every aspect of social and economic life and the phenomena occurring in it which can be observed and analysed using statistical methods.
2. A detail scope of statistical surveys conducted within the system of official statistics shall be determined pursuant to the procedure specified in Chapter 2 of this Law and should take into account the purpose, indispensability and social usefulness of such surveys.

Article 5
1. The official statistics has a mandate to collect from all available sources, specified in detail in the programme of statistical surveys of official statistics or in other laws and to gather statistical data from and about business entities, other legal entities and entities without legal status and their activities, further referred to as `individual data` and statistical data on natural persons concerning their life and status, further referred to as `personal data`.
2. The provision of paragraph 1 does not refer to data protected by the law on professional confidentiality.

Article 6
1. Statistical surveys of official statistics shall be conducted as complete surveys of the whole universe of units, including all kinds of censuses or as sample surveys on a selected sample or on a set of units selected purposefully for a survey.
2. Statistical surveys shall be conducted on the obligatory or optional basis.
3. The issues mentioned under paragraphs 1 and 2 are specified each time in the programme of statistical surveys of official statistics or in special laws.

Article 7
1. If a survey rendered in the programme of statistical surveys of official statistics shall be conducted on the obligatory basis, the units specified in the programme shall be obliged to provide and submit to the organiser of the survey complete and exhaustive information in the scope, form and time pursuant to the procedure specified in this programme.
2. The provision of Article 5, paragraph 2 shall apply correspondingly.

Article 8
In the statistical surveys in which natural persons shall participate it shall not be allowed to collect, on the obligatory basis, information on the race, religion, personal life as well as philosophical and political views.

Article 9
1. Conducting of all kinds of censuses which imposes on natural persons the obligation to provide information shall require a specific law.
2. The procedure for imposing of responsibilities related to the participation in statistical surveys other than those mentioned under paragraph 1 shall be determined by this Law.

Article 10
The collected and gathered in the statistical surveys of official statistics individual and personal data shall be confidential and subject to particular protection; the data shall be used exclusively for statistical calculations, compilations and analyses and for the creation by the statistical services of official statistics sampling frames for statistical surveys conducted by those services; providing or use of individual and personal data for other than specified above purposes shall be prohibited (statistical confidentiality).

Article 11
The official statistical services shall be obliged to inform in a written form or by announcing in other usual way about the purpose, scope and the way of conducting all kinds of censuses or other statistical survey with the participation of census enumerators and statistical interviewers, about the rights and obligations of units requested to provide data or answers, and the guarantee that the information shall be kept secret and statistical confidentiality shall be observed.

Article 12
The staff of the official statistical services, the census enumerators, statistical interviewers and other persons performing activities in the name and on the behalf of official statistics, having direct access to individual and personal data shall be obliged to observe without exceptions the statistical confidentiality and shall be allowed to perform those activities only after delivering an oath in a written form, at a statistical office or other units of official statistical services, of the following contents:
`I hereby take summons that I shall perform my tasks on the behalf of the official statistics dutifully, in accordance with the professional ethics of a statistician and that I shall keep secret from the third parties the individual data known to me during performing those tasks `.

Article 13
1. The data collected and stored by the state administration bodies and units of local authorities, other governmental agencies, organs maintaining official registers and the National Bank of Poland, on the basis of other regulations than this Law, are data of information systems of the public administration, and are further referred to as the `administrative records`.
2. This Law shall not restrict the collection of data on forms and questionnaires for the purposes mentioned under paragraph 1 or limit a free transmission of data on themselves and their activities by legal entities, entities without legal status and natural persons.
3. The state administration bodies and units of local authorities, other governmental agencies, organs maintaining official registers and the National Bank of Poland on the free-of-charge basis shall submit to the official statistical services the stored by them administrative records in the scope, form and time specified each time in the programme of statistical surveys of official statistics, especially in the form of extracts from the registers, copies of: data files, collected declarations, registration documents and other official forms, results of measurements, data on the environment monitoring and shall provide data from their computerised data bases systems.
4. In case the organs of units of local authorities shall perform special tasks as the tasks commissioned by the state administration, the tasks shall include also the responsibility to submit the information for the purposes of statistical surveys of official statistics and national official registers run on the basis of this Law.
5. The President of the Central Statistical Office shall be obliged to submit to the state administration bodies, other governmental agencies, organs maintaining official registers and the National Bank of Poland justified motions concerning the need to supplement collected and stored administrative records in such a way as they could be used directly for the needs of official statistics.
6. The President of the Central Statistical Office shall be obliged to provide to the state administration bodies and the units of local authorities data on activities conducted by them in the scope corresponding to their specific statutory activities.

Article 14
1. The results of calculations, compilations and analyses conducted on the basis of the collected statistical data in statistical surveys of official statistics, further referred to as the `statistical information` are commonly available.
2. The official statistics shall provide to all equal, indiscriminatory and simultaneous access to the statistical information, especially to major figures and indicators.
3. The types of statistical information and the forms and time of its availability shall be specified in the programme of statistical surveys of official statistics.
4. The types of statistical information are included in the programme of statistical surveys of official statistics as indicated under item paragraph 3 corresponding to the scope of specific statutory activities.

Chapter 2
Organisation of Statistical Surveys within the System of Official Statistics

Article 15
1. The Statistical Council, further referred to as the `Council`, shall be established as the advisory and opinion-making organ in the field of statistics.
2. The Council shall be subordinated to the President of the Council of Ministers.
3. The responsibilities of the Council shall include:

1. determination, annually, on the basis of the proposals prepared by the President of the Central Statistical Office, of a draft programme of statistical surveys for the next year,
2. submission to the Council of Ministers, not later than on 30 June each year, of the draft programme of statistical surveys of official statistics,
3. recommendations on conducting new and periodic surveys concerning a broad scope of statistical observation and related to them methodological and preparatory activities, planned for the period of the next ten years,
4. evaluation of the implementation of the programme of statistical surveys of official statistics and formulation of opinions on other issues having a considerable significance to the development of official statistics,
5. cancelled
6. providing opinions on the budgetary expenses on statistical surveys.

Article 16
1. The Council shall consist of members of the Council appointed by the President of the Council of Ministers representing:

1. state administration bodies – five persons,
2. local authorities in the Joint Commission of Government and Local Authorities – one person,
3. National Bank of Poland - one person,
4. social organisations, professional and economic self-government – three persons,
5. organisation of employers representative within the meaning of the Act of 6 July 2001 on the Tripartite Commission for Social and Economic Issues and Voivodship Commissions for Social Dialogue (Journal of Laws No 100, item 1080), hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act on the Tripartite Commission for Social and Economic Issues’ – one person from each organisation,
6. trade unions organizations representative within the meaning of the Act on the Tripartite Commission for Social and Economic Issues – one person from each organisation

and two experts – one in the field of social sciences and one in the field of economic sciences.
2. The President of Central Statistical Office of Poland shall take part in the work of the Council.

Article 17
1. The term of office of the Council shall last 5 years starting from the date of its establishment. The term of office for a member of the Council shall terminate together with the term of the whole Council.
2. The President of the Council of Ministers may recall a member of the Council before the end of the term exclusively in case when:

1. the person shall submit a resignation,
2. the person shall not participate in the activities of the Council.

3. In case of an incidence mentioned under paragraph 2 and in case of the death of a member of the Council, the President of the Council of Ministers shall appoint a new member to the Council. The provision of Article 16, subparagraph 1 shall apply correspondingly.
4. The Chairman of the Council shall be elected from among its members.
5. The procedures of work of the Council shall be determined by the statute of the Council and shall be approved by the President of the Council of Ministers.
6. The administrative service of the activities of the Council shall be provided by the Central Statistical Office.
7. The costs of the activities of the Council shall be covered from the state budget allocated to the Central Statistical Office.

Article 18
The programme of statistical surveys of official statistics shall be determined by the Council of Ministers by a regulation specifying for each survey:

1. the topic and the organiser of the survey,
2. the type of the survey,
3. the subject matter and units covered by the survey as well as the sources of statistical data,
4. the units of the national economy and natural persons who do not conduct economic activity shall be obliged to provide information and submit statistical data or participate in the surveys on the optional basis,
5. the forms, the frequency and the place of data collection,
6. the type of statistical information and the forms and dates of its dissemination, including major figures and indicators,
7. the costs and sources of financing.

Article 19
The Council of Ministers shall ensure that the programme of statistical surveys of official statistics, shall include surveys that are relevant for the observation of social and economic processes, in particular:

1. permanent surveys oriented towards continuous observation of major aspects of life and occurring phenomena,
2. periodic surveys, including all kinds of censuses,
3. surveys which guarantee the comparability of the results, in case when they refer to changing over time objects of statistical observation or if the methodology of survey changes,
4. the surveys which are indispensable for meeting the obligations of the Republic of Poland to provide data to international organisations.

Article 20
1. The statistical surveys of official statistics shall be conducted by the President of the Central Statistical Office.
2. The Council of the Ministers, at the motion of the Council, may decide, specifying this in the programme of statistical surveys that a statistical survey shall be conducted by:

1. other indicated central public administration agency or the National Bank of Poland, if the survey requires a specialist expertise which is at the disposal of the agency or if it has at its disposal data collected for this purpose,
2. the President of the Central Statistical Office together with other indicated central public administration agency or other state administration institution or the National Bank of Poland or the head of voivodship,
3. an indicated statistical office together with the head of voivodship or organ of units of local authorities on its motion.

3. The organiser of the statistical survey, pursuant to the procedure specified under paragraph 2, subparagraph 1, shall be obliged to:

1. apply classification standards,
2. provide the results of the survey to the official statistics services and to submit them, in the consultation with the President of the Central Statistical Office, to international organisations.

Article 21
1. The official statistics services can:

1. conduct at the request compilations supporting other information systems of the public administration,
2. delegate employees to perform statistical activities in the state administration agencies and units of local authorities.

2. The official statistics services can:

1. conduct at individual requests statistical surveys not included in the programme of statistical surveys of official statistics,
2. perform, on a commission, additional compilations and analyses, making use for this purpose also of data collected in surveys included in the programme of statistical surveys of official statistics.

3. Collecting of statistical data for the activities mentioned under paragraph 1, subparagraph 1 and additional data for surveys, compilations and analyses specified under paragraph 2 shall be done exclusively on the optional basis.
4. The results of surveys, the compilations and analyses, mentioned under paragraph 2 become data of official statistics and can be used, made available and disseminated by the official statistics services, if this does not impede the justified interests of the orderer or the party that commissioned the survey and it is not specified in the contract that they can be used exclusively by the ordering or commissioning party.

Chapter 3
Services of Official Statistics

Article 22
The official statistics services shall consist of the President of the Central Statistical Office, subordinated to him directors of statistical offices and other statistical units, mentioned under Articles 27 and 29.

Article 23
1. The President of the Central Statistical Office is the central agency of public administration in the field of statistics, who performs his/her tasks by means of the services of official statistics.
2. The supervision of the President of the Central Statistical Office shall be exercised by the President of the Council of Ministers.
3. The organisation of the Central Statistical Office shall be specified in the statute passed by the President of the Council of Ministers in the form of a regulation.

Article 24
1. Cancelled
2. The President of the Central Statistical Office selected in a competition is appointed and recalled by the President of the Council of Minister.
2a. A representative of the Statistical Council is a member of the competition selection board provided for in the law of 27 July 2005 on the selection procedure for the competition for the positions of heads of central offices in the public administration, presidents of state agencies and presidents of the management boards of the earmarked funds (Journal of Law No. 163 item 1362).
3. The term of office of the President of the Central Statistical Office shall last 6 years starting from the day of the appointment; the President of the Central Statistical Office shall perform his/her duties to the day of the appointment of his/her successor.
4. Cancelled.
5. The term of office of the President of the Central Statistical Office shall terminate with his/her death, or the stating by the Tribunal of State of his/her dismissal or recalling from the post.
6. The President of the Central Statistical Office shall be recalled in case when:

1. cancelled
2. cancelled
3. he/she shall fail to comply with the rules of professional ethics,
4. cancelled
5. the person shall be prohibited to take executive posts or perform functions related to the special responsibilities in the state administration.

7. The President of the Central Statistical Office shall perform his/her duties together with the Vice-Presidents, appointed and recalled by the President of the Council of Ministers at the motion of the President of the Central Statistical Office.

Article 25
1. The responsibilities of the President of the Central Statistical Office shall include:

1. recognising the demand for statistical information and analyses and preparing on this basis draft programmes of statistical surveys of official statistics and submitting them to the Council,
2. organising and conducting statistical surveys and determining their methodology,
3. collecting, gathering and generalising statistical data and their analysis,
   
   3a. Annual preparation and publication of the National Health Account in the “Monitor Polski”, Official Journal of the Republic of Poland
   
4. conducting all kinds of censuses,
5. statistical data storing,
6. developing classification standards, nomenclatures and definitions of major categories, determining correspondence between them and their interpretation,
7. making available and disseminating statistical information including major figures and indicators,
8. preparing and announcing demographic forecasts and statistical economic and social forecasts,
9. presenting to the President, the Parliament (Sejm and Senate), state administration agencies, the Supreme Chamber of Control (NIK), the National Bank of Poland, units of local authorities and other governmental institutions, the statistical information in the scope, dates and forms specified in the programme of statistical surveys,
10. maintaining national official registers: the business register and the register of territorial division of the country,
11. conducting statistical surveys and analyses resulting from the international obligations taken by the Republic of Poland,
12. conducting statistical international comparisons and announcing their results,
13. satisfying the obligation to submit statistical data to international organisations taken by the Republic of Poland,
14. co-operation with the specialised in statistics international and regional organisations, as well as the agencies and offices of other countries,
15. conducting research and development activities in the field of methodology of statistical surveys, classification standards and the application of mathematical and computing methods in statistics,
16. conducting training courses and upgrading knowledge in the field of statistics,
17. promoting knowledge about statistics.

2. The statistical offices shall perform the tasks mentioned in paragraph 1, subparagraphs 1-5, 6 - in the scope of interpretation, 7-12, 14, 16 and 17 in the scope specified under paragraph 4.
3. The statistical offices shall be established and dissolved by the President of the Central Statistical Office on the basis of an ordinance.
4. Detail scope of activities and the organisation of a statistical office shall be determined by the statute given by the President of the Central Statistical Office by means of an ordinance.
5. A statistical office shall be headed by the director appointed and recalled by the President of the Central Statistical Office. The director of the statistical office is an organ of independent administration in the voivodship.

Article 26
The Scientific Statistical Council shall operate at the President of the Central Statistical Office, as an advisory and opinion-making body in the field of methodology of statistical surveys; the composition and procedures of activities of the Scientific Statistical Council shall be determined by the President of the Central Statistical Office on the basis of an ordinance.

Article 27
The President of the Central Statistical Office can establish units servicing official statistics and shall determine on the basis of an ordinance their responsibilities and organisation.

Article 28
1. The President of the Central Statistical Office shall appoint census enumerators, statistical interviewers, experts and voluntary statistical correspondents.
2. The responsibilities of census enumerators shall include collecting statistical data in population and housing censuses, whereas statistical interviewers shall collect statistical data in other surveys in the form of responses to questions contained in the statistical forms, questionnaires and interview documents.
3. The census enumerators and statistical interviewers during performing their tasks specified under paragraph 2 shall be legally protected as the public servants.
4. The tasks of statistical experts and voluntary correspondents shall be to prepare opinions and evaluations concerning specific topics of statistical surveys.
5. The President of the Central Statistical Office shall determine by a regulation the procedures for appointing census enumerators, statistical interviewers, experts and voluntary statistical correspondents and their participation in the conducted statistical surveys.

Article 29
1. The President of the Central Statistical Office can establish on the basis an ordinance statistical agencies to perform activities specified under Article 21, paragraphs 1 and 2 and to organise the work of census enumerators and statistical interviewers.
2. The statistical agencies can take orders against payment from business entities and legal entities.
3. The establishing of a statistical agency can be done after:

1. conducting an analysis on the feasibility of obtaining financial resources by the agency,
2. stating that the performing of tasks commissioned to the agency which are mentioned under paragraph 2 would not restrict the right of access to statistical information,
3. organising a supervisory system on the activities of the agency and the quality of the rendered services.

Chapter 4
Statistical Responsibilities and Access to Data

Article 30
Units operating in the national economy shall be obliged to:

1. possess identifying number in the national official register of businesses which is mentioned under Chapter 6 and to use it for submitting information used for statistical purposes,
2. use in their records, documents and accounting classification standards specified in Article 40,
3. submit on occasional, systematic or periodic basis, free-of-charge, statistical information and data on the economic activities conducted by them and their results in the forms and dates and according to the methodological principles specified in detail in the programme of statistical surveys of official statistics and the by-laws issued on the basis of Articles 31

Article 31
The President of the Council of Ministers shall determine by means of a regulation the patterns of statistical questionnaires together with the explanations concerning their fulfilment, on the questionnaires used in the statistical surveys specified in the programme of statistical surveys of official statistics.

Article 32
Cancelled.

Article 33
Cancelled.

Article 34
Cancelled.

Article 35
1. The official statistics services shall have the mandate to collect for statistical purposes and for the preparation of demographic forecasts the following data on natural persons residing at the territory of the Republic of Poland:

1. first name and surname,
2. gender,
3. date and place of birth,
4. citizenship,
5. marital status,
6. date of concluding and termination of marriage,
7. address of residence,
8. date of death,
9. identifier of the system of population register.

2. The data specified under paragraph 1 can be collected in the form of responses provided directly to official statistics services by the person to whom they refer or an adult member of the household or can be derived from administrative records; the scope and form of personal data collected indispensable for a specific surveys is determined each time in the programme of statistical surveys of official statistics, and in case of population and housing censuses - in a specific law.
3. Other than specified under paragraph 1 data which can be referred to an identifiable natural person can be collected by official statistics services exclusively when a document containing personal data which cannot be in a simple way separated for the transmission for statistical purposes is indicated as a source of statistical data in the programme of statistical surveys or if the identification is indispensable for the generalisation of the results of statistical surveys.
4. The storing in one file or in a data base of all personal data collected by official statistics services concerning an identifiable natural person derived from various statistical surveys, which when linked could be used for the characteristics or evaluation of that person shall be prohibited.
5. The generalisation of personal data and their input to data bases of information systems of official statistics services with the exception which is specified under paragraph 6, shall be done with the exclusion of data mentioned under paragraph 1, subparagraphs 1 and 7.
6. The personal data in the scope specified under paragraph 1, subparagraphs 1-3, 7 and 9 can be collected and stored by the official statistics services in the form of a sampling frame for statistical surveys and for statistical generalisations, compilations and analyses conducted by those services.

Chapter 5
Dissemination and Storing of Statistical Information

Article 36
The organisers of statistical surveys of official statistics shall be obliged to announce, make available and disseminate the final statistical information observing the provisions of Articles 10 and 14.

Article 37
The statistical information shall be:

1. announced in the publications of the Central Statistical Office and statistical offices, including statistical yearbooks, and - after consultation with the President of the Central Statistical Office - in publications of other organs conducting statistical surveys of official statistics,
2. published in the Official Journal of the Republic of Poland "Monitor Polski" if a specific provision provides for that,
3. announced in the mass media,
4. made available in other forms than those mentioned under subparagraphs 1-3.

Article 38
1. It shall not be allowed to publish or disseminate individual data obtained in the statistical services of official statistics.
2. It shall not be allowed to publish or disseminate obtained in statistical surveys of official statistics statistical information which can be linked or can identify natural persons or individual data characterising business entities, especially if the aggregated data consist of less than three entities or the share of one entity in the compilation is higher than the three-fourths of the total.
3. The President of the Council of Ministers shall specify, by means of a regulation, the procedures and forms of publishing and dissemination of the results of statistical surveys.

Article 39
The President of the Central Statistical Office shall ensure that the storing of collected statistical data guarantees observing the principles of statistical confidentiality.

Chapter 6
Classification Standards and National Official Registers

Article 40
1. The President of the Central Statistical Office in consultation with the corresponding central public administration agencies shall prepare standard classifications and nomenclatures, which are relevant for describing the course of economic and social processes as well as the correspondence between the standard classifications and nomenclatures and their interpretations.
2. The standard classifications and nomenclatures mentioned under paragraph 1 shall be introduced by the Council of Ministers by means of a regulation.
3. The introduced by mode of paragraph 2 standard classifications and nomenclatures shall be applied in statistics, administrative records and documentation, accounting systems and in official registers and information systems of public administration.
4. Cancelled.
5. Cancelled.
6. Cancelled.

Article 41
1. The President of the Central Statistical Office shall run the national official registers of:

1. businesses entities of national economy,
2. territorial division of the country.

2. The tasks specified under paragraph 1 shall be performed by the Central Statistical Office within the framework of the information system of public administration, separate from the system of official statistics.
3. The collected and stored in the national official registers information is not statistical data in the meaning of this Law with the exception of information mentioned in Article 42, paragraph 1, subparagraph 7, and shall not be subject to statistical confidentiality.

Article 42
1. In the register of business entities of national economy, further referred to as the `business register` the following information shall be rendered about legal entities, entities without legal status and natural persons conducting economic activity in the scope of their activity:

1. the name and address of the location, and in case of natural persons running economic activity - additionally first and middle name, surname and place of residence and personal identification number in the population records system,
2. cancelled
3. legal and ownership forms,
4. the scope of activity, including prevailing activity,
5. date of founding, starting, suspending and termination of activity,
6. the name of the registration or recording organ, the name of the register (records) and the number allocated by the agency,
7. the number of employees and in case of a farm the total area and the area of agricultural land,
8. their local units in the scope of information specified in subparagraphs 1 and 4-7.

1a. A local unit organised as an entity (establishment, division, branch) situated in the location identified by its separate address at which or from which economic activity is carried by at least one working person.
2. The legal entities, entities without legal status and natural persons running economic activity in the scope of their activity shall be obliged to complete and submit an application for the entry to the register of business entities and to provide information on the changes concerning data specified under paragraph 1, subparagraphs 1-6.
3. Cancelled
4. The entities specified under paragraph 2 shall be obliged to submit the regional statistical office at the voivodship in which they have their seat, the registration application together with a copy (excerpt, certificate) confirming the creation or starting activity, the application for changing the variables covered with the registration or an application for removing them from the register within 14 days from the occurrence of the circumstances justifying the entry, change or the removal from the register.
5. Cancelled
5a. The entrepreneur undertaking business activity may submit an application for entering into the business register together with the application for entering into the register of entrepreneurs, or together with the application for entering into the register of economic activities in a competent registry court or recording authority respectively.
6. The entry to the business register of private farms shall be done on the basis of the list of those farms submitted to statistical offices competent for the place of location of those farms by authorities of communes (gminas) on the basis of a specific law.
7. The entry to the register shall be done after coding of the characteristics of the entity specified under paragraph 1, according to the classification standards in force, together with the allocation of a unit identifying number.
8. Cancelled
9. Cancelled.

Article 43
1. The statistical office shall issue to the entered into the register legal entities, entities without legal status and natural persons running economic activity, certificates on allocated to them and their separate units identification number together with the coded characteristics and description of those characteristics immediately, not later than within 7 days from the date of the application.
2. The issuing of the certificates on the entry to the business register and allocated identification number to a private farm shall be done on the application of the person running the farm.
3. The entities obliged to be entered into the business register, in their official contacts and those related to their economic activity shall be obliged to use the certificate specified under paragraph 1 and to quote the identification number on their official stamps and official documentation.
4. Cancelled.

Article 44
1. The agencies running the official registers, with the exception of court registers and information systems of public administration, containing data on particular entities shall be obliged to enter the identification number of the entity allocated in the register of business entities and to use it when providing information and to apply uniform codes for the description of principal characteristics of the entity, coded according to the standard classifications.
2. The statistical offices shall make available on the free-of-charge basis to:

1. agencies running other official registers and information systems of public administration, specified under paragraph 1, on periodic basis, the list of businesses entered into the business register together with the allocated to them identification number and coded description of the information covered with the register,
2. state administration bodies and units of local authorities, other governmental agencies, the Supreme Chamber of Control (NIK) and the National Bank of Poland, the State Labour Inspection and the General Inspector for Personal Data Protection on their written request, the extracts from the business register

 - in the agreed scope, indispensable for the statutory activities of those agencies.

3. The information available pursuant to the procedure provided for under paragraph 2 cannot include data specified in Article 42, paragraph 1, subparagraph 7.

Article 45
1. In the scope of information specified in Article 42, paragraph 1, subparagraphs 1 and 3-6, (with the exception of the identifier of the population records system and the place of residence of natural persons conducting economic activity) and the identifying number, the business register shall be open and available for the third parties in the forms specified under paragraphs 2 and 3.
2. The Central Statistical Office shall publish on periodic basis catalogues of selected groups of businesses entered into the business register.
3. The Central Statistical Office and statistical offices shall make available upon individual orders against payment the extracts from the business register.
4. The catalogues and extracts, specified under paragraphs 2 and 3 can be issued in a written or other form with the application of the available technical facilities.

Article 46
The Council of Ministers shall determine, by a regulation, the mode and methodology of running and updating the business register, including the patterns of the application forms, forms and certificates as well as detail conditions and procedures for the co-operation between the services of official statistics with other organs running official registers and information systems of the public administration.

Article 47
1. The President of the Central Statistical Office shall run national official register of the territorial division of the country, further referred to as the `territorial register`.
2. The territorial register shall cover the systems of:

1. identifiers and names of units of administrative division,
2. identifiers and names of localities,
3. statistical regions and census enumeration areas,
4. identification of addresses of streets, real estate, buildings and dwellings.

3. In the official registers and information systems of public administration it shall be obliged to use the codes applied in the territorial register.

Article 48
1. The territorial register shall be open.
2. Article 44, paragraph 2 shall be applicable correspondingly.

Article 49
The Council of Ministers shall specify, by a regulation, detailed principles of running, using and making available the territorial register and related to it obligations of the state administration agencies and units of local authorities.

Chapter 7
Financing of Official Statistics

Article 50
1. The statistical surveys of official statistics shall be financed from the resources of the state budget up to the amount specified each year in the budgetary law, with the exceptions specified under paragraph 4 and 5 in Article 51.
2. The adoption by the Council of Ministers of the programme of statistical surveys of official statistics shall precede, or at the least shall be concurrent with the adoption of the provisional Budgetary Law.
3. The resources from the state budget for financing of statistical surveys of official statistics shall be rendered in the part referring to the Central Statistical Office, an in case when in accordance with the provisions in the programme of statistical surveys, the organiser of a specific survey shall be other state administration agency - correspondingly in the part concerning that agency.
4. Statistical surveys of official statistics conducted by the National Bank of Poland shall be financed from the resources of the National Bank of Poland.
5. The costs of statistical surveys of official statistics conducted by the official statistics services together with the National Bank of Poland or other agencies and institutions specified in Article 20, paragraph 2, subparagraphs 2 and 3, shall be financed from the state budget rendered in the part referring to the Central Statistical Office and the indicated by the organiser of the conducted survey joint sources of financing.
6. In exceptional circumstances a specific statistical survey rendered in the programme of statistical surveys of official statistics can be financed from non-budgetary sources, declared by the organiser of the survey.
7. The incomes derived by the Central Statistical Office and statistical offices, related to the dissemination and making available final statistical information in the form specified each time in the programme of statistical surveys of official statistics shall be incomes of the state budget.

Article 51
1. The costs of statistical surveys, specified in Article 21, paragraph 2, subparagraph 1, conducted by official statistics services against an order shall be covered in total by the commissioning party.
2. The costs of additional compilations and analyses, specified in Article 21, paragraph 1 and paragraph 2, subparagraph 1, are covered in total by the commissioning party.
3. In case when the party commissioning surveys, compilations and analyses, specified in Article 21 of the Law, are state administration agencies, the Supreme Chamber of Control (NIK) and the National Bank of Poland, the payment shall be established on the costs recovery basis.
4. The provision of paragraph 3 shall be applied correspondingly in case, when the commissioning party is a higher school or other research and development centre and statistical data shall be used for didactic, research and development activities financed from the state budget.

Article 52
The activities of the official statistics services are financed according to the principles provided for in the regulations on public finances.

Article 53
1. The submitting of statistical data in the form and pursuant to the procedure specified in the programme of statistical surveys of official statistics, and in case of all kinds of censuses - in a specific law, shall be done correspondingly at the expense of the unit under statistical observation or the manager of the information system of public administration or the agency running the official register.
2. A payment for conducting permanent, additional activities related to the preparation and submitting of specific statistical data can be provided for, in specific cases in the programme of statistical surveys of official statistics.

Chapter 8
Penalty Provisions

Article 54
Who violates statistical confidentiality shall be subject to imprisonment up to 3 years.

Article 55
Who to obtain material or personal gains uses statistical data known to him/her due to performing job or tasks on the commission of the organiser of a statistical survey of official statistics shall be subject to imprisonment up to 5 years.

Article 56
1. Who against the obligation submits statistical data not consistent with the actual state shall be subject to a fiscal fine or imprisonment up to 2 years.
2. In case of a deed of a minor degree the person shall be subject to a fiscal fine.

Article 57
Who against the obligation shall refuse to satisfy the statistical obligations or to provide information in all kinds of censuses or other statistical survey shall be subject to a fiscal fine.

Article 58
Who against the obligation shall submit statistical data past the specified deadline shall be subject to a fiscal fine.

Article 59
The judgement on the issues against the violation specified in Article 58 is done on the basis of regulations on the proceedings in cases of violations.

Chapter 9
Transitional and Final Provisions

Article 60
1. The binding on the day of enforcement of the Law, issued on the basis of Article 16, paragraph 2 of the Law issued on 26 February 1982 on state statistics (Journal of Law No. 40, paragraph 221, 1989), the ordinance of the President of the Central Statistical Office imposing the reporting responsibilities shall remain in force by 30 June 1996 unless they are contradictory to the provisions of this Law.
2. The ordinances issued on the basis of Article 17, paragraph 2 of the Law mentioned under paragraph 1, determining the reporting responsibilities shall remain in force till the issuing of the ordinances in the execution of the programme of statistical surveys of official statistics for the year 1996, determined pursuant to the procedures specified in Chapter 2 of the Law, especially in specific cases to the moment of the replacement of collection of numerical data on the basis of the Law mentioned under paragraph 1, by other by-laws.

Article 61
The introduced pursuant to the procedure specified by the Law in Article 60:

1. European Classification of Economic Activity (Polish version of NACE),
2. Polish Combined Nomenclature of Commodities in Foreign Trade (PCN),
3. Systematic List of Commodities (SWW),
4. Classification of Goods and Services (KWiU),
5. Classification of Kinds of Fixed Assets (KRŚT),
6. Classification of Construction Projects (KOB),
7. Classification of Occupations (KZ),
8. Systematic List of Legal and Organisational Forms (SFPO)

- become classification standards in the understanding of Article 40, paragraph 1 of the Law.

Article 62
1. The President of the Central Statistical Office shall finalise the activities and organise the running of business register of national economy according to the principles specified in Articles 41-46 not later than by 31 December 1997.
2. By 31 December 1997 the functions of the business register shall be performed by the system of coding of businesses with statistical identification numbers REGON, further referred to as the `REGON register` run on the basis of Article 12, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the Law mentioned in Article 60.
3. The legal entities, entities without legal status and natural persons running economic activities, not possessing on the day of the enforcement of the Law the REGON identification number shall be obliged to submit to the statistical offices competent to their location, not later than within 2 months from the enforcement of the Law, an application for the allocation of the number for them and their separate units. The statistical offices shall enter the businesses to the REGON register and issue within a month from the date of submitting the application, a certificate on the allocated identification number.
4. The legal entities, entities without legal status and natural persons running economic activities shall be obliged to submit to the REGON register directly in the statistical office of the voivodship in which they have their seat, correspondingly: an application for allocation of the identification number - within 14 days from the establishment of the business, the application for the change of the characteristics covered with the register - within 14 days from the change and the application for cancelling from the register - on the day when the business quitted the activities.
5. The President of the Central Statistical Office shall enter, ex officio, into the REGON register, private agricultural farms gradually, not later than by 31 December 1997.
6. The provisions regulating functioning of the REGON register, issued on the basis of the Law on state statistics with the changes specified under paragraphs 2, 4, 5 and 7 shall remain in force to the moment of the finalising of the activities on establishing the business register.
7. The provisions of Article 43, paragraph 3, Article 44, paragraph 2 and Article 45 apply correspondingly to the REGON register.

Article 63
Cancelled

Article 64
Cancelled

Article 65
The President of the Central Statistical Office shall update the territorial register run by it, in the scope of information, specified in Article 47, paragraph 2, subparagraphs 1-3 - by 31 December 1997 and shall supplement it with the address identification of streets, real estate, buildings and dwellings - within the framework of preparatory activities for the coming population and housing census, not later than by 30 June 1998.

Article 66
1. The operating at the moment of the enforcement of the Law voivodship statistical offices shall become statistical offices in the understanding of the Law and shall remain at their present seats.
2. The employees of the voivodship statistical offices shall become correspondingly the employees of the statistical offices in the understanding of the Law.
3. The President of the Central Statistical Office, by 31 December 1996 shall determine, by an ordinance, detail scopes of activities and statutes of particular statistical offices.

Article 67
The Law issued on 26 February 1982 on state statistics (Journal of Law No. 40, paragraph 221, 1989) shall become null and void.

Article 68
The Law shall enter into force 3 months after its announcement.

Amendments:
Journal of Laws of 1996, No. 156, item 775 art. 9
Journal of Laws of 1997, No. 121, item 769 art. 83
Journal of Laws of 1997, No. 88, item 554 art. 5 § 2 pt 42
Journal of Laws of 1998, No. 99, item 632 art. 1
Journal of Laws of 1998, No. 106, item 668 art. 100
Journal of Laws of 2001, No. 100, item 1080 art. 26
Journal of Laws of 2003, No. 217, item 2125 art. 2
Journal of Laws of 2004, No. 273, item 2703 art. 22
Journal of Laws of 2005, No. 163, item 1362 art. 24
Journal of Laws of 2006, No. 170, item 1217 art. 24