Law
No. (23) of 2006
Establishing
the
Dubai
Statistics Centre[1]
ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ
We, Mohammed bin Rashid Al
Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai,
After
perusal of:
Law
No. (7) of 2001 Concerning the Statistics Centre of Dubai Municipality,
Do hereby issue this Law.
This Law will be cited as “Law No.
(23) of 2006 Establishing the Dubai Statistics Centre.”
The following words and
expressions, wherever mentioned in this Law, will have the meaning indicated
opposite each of them unless the context implies otherwise:
|
UAE: |
The
United Arab Emirates. |
|
Ruler: |
His
Highness the Ruler of Dubai. |
|
Emirate: |
The Emirate
of Dubai. |
|
Executive
Council: |
The Executive
Council of the Emirate of Dubai. |
|
DSC: |
The
Dubai Statistics Centre. |
|
Board
of Directors: |
The board
of directors of the DSC. |
|
Chairman: |
The chairman
of the Board of Directors. |
|
Executive
Director: |
The executive
director of the DSC. |
Pursuant
to this Law, a centre named the “Dubai Statistics Centre” is
established. The DSC will have legal personality, financial and administrative
autonomy, and the legal capacity required to perform all acts and dispositions
that ensure the achievement of its objectives. It may enter into contracts with
third parties, sue and be sued in its own name, and appoint any other person to
represent it for these purposes.
The head office of the DSC will be located in the city of Dubai. The DSC may establish branches within and outside of the Emirate.
The
DSC will be responsible for establishing a modern integrated statistical
system, and will be the only official source to compile, analyse, and publish
statistical data and information in the Emirate. The DSC will follow uniform international
standards in the compilation, analysis, processing, and publishing of
statistical data as follows:
1. compile, update, maintain, and protect statistical data and information relating to the Emirate from all sources of data;
2. conduct, on a regular basis and in
cooperation with the federal Ministry of Planning, the population and housing
censuses in the Emirate and economic and social surveys whether through a
complete or sample count of the concerned groups ;
3. upon the request of local departments
and other concerned entities in the Emirate, design and conduct statistical
studies and surveys as agreed with such entities;
4. provide statistical opinions and
advice to local government departments and corporations;
5. provide, to the extent permissible,
statistical data and information to government departments, authorities, and
corporations and to the business community and to individuals;
6. in coordination with federal entities
in the UAE, standardise statistical definitions and concepts used in the
Emirate in accordance with the relevant recognised international
classifications and standards;
7. prepare and publish statistical books
and bulletins in the Emirate; and
8. prepare demographic, economic, and social statistical indices in accordance with best practices, and maintain these as a reference in the Emirate.
Using
the latest technology available, data sources must provide the DSC with paper
or electronic copies of the statistical data and information they have in their
possession, or that they create or develop. The DSC will establish the
technical rules governing the relationship with such sources.
For
the purposes of this Article, data sources will, to the extent that data relates to
the Emirate, include local departments; public authorities and corporations
affiliated to the Government of Dubai; non-profit corporations, charitable organisations,
individuals, and companies operating in the Emirate; and federal ministries,
authorities, and corporations.
Personal data and information obtained through any survey or census is deemed confidential and may not be disclosed or divulged to any individual or entity. Such data and information may be published for other than statistical purposes only by the DSC or with its prior written authorisation. Moreover, this data may not be relied on to establish a tax burden or used as evidence to prove a crime or as a basis for any legal action. However, it may be used as evidence against any person who provides the DSC with any false data or information.
The
DSC may publish the outcome of general statistical data and information,
excluding personal statistical data and information, in periodic bulletins or
annual reports.
The provisions of this Law do not prevent data sources from conducting any non-field statistical studies or surveys relating to their business, provided that such studies and surveys do not conflict with the functions and objectives of the DSC.
The
DSC will have a Board of Directors comprised of a Chairman, a vice chairman,
and at least five (5) competent and specialised members, who are appointed
pursuant to a decree of the Ruler. Members of the Board of Directors are
appointed for a renewable term of three (3) years.
The
Board of Directors is the highest authority of the DSC, and is responsible for
the general supervision of the business and activities of the DSC. In
particular, the Board of Directors may:
1. establish the general policy and project plans of the DSC;
2. approve the draft budget of the DSC
and submit it to the Executive Council for final approval;
3. approve the organisational structure
and the bylaws regulating the administrative, financial, and technical affairs
of the DSC, and submit these to the Executive Council for final approval;
4. review the annual performance reports
of the DSC; and
5. perform any other duties approved by the Executive Council.
The
Board of Directors will convene at least once every two (2) months at the
invitation of the Chairman or vice chairman. Meetings will be valid if attended
by the majority of members, provided that the Chairman or vice chairman is in
attendance.
The
Board of Directors will issue resolutions by the absolute majority vote of the attending
members, and in the event of a tie, the chair of the meeting will have the
casting vote. Proceedings of the meetings of the Board of Directors and its resolutions
will be recorded in minutes approved by the chair of the meeting and the attending
members.
1. The Board of Directors may form permanent or temporary sub-committees which will assist the Board of Directors in performing its duties, in considering matters referred to it, and in making proposals concerning such matters. The Board of Directors will determine the functions and powers of such sub-committees.
2. In performing its functions, the Board
of Directors may seek the assistance of any experts and specialists it deems
appropriate to invite to its meetings, provided that they do not have the right
to vote.
1. The executive body of the DSC will comprise an Executive Director and a number of employees.
2. The Executive Director of the DSC will
be appointed pursuant to a resolution of the Chairman of the Executive Council.
The
Executive Director will supervise the day-to-day management of the DSC, and will
in particular have the duties and powers to:
1. propose the programmes and plans of the DSC;
2. implement the general policy of the DSC;
3. supervise the work of the executive
body of the DSC;
4. prepare the draft annual budget of the
DSC and submit it to the Board of Directors; and
5. propose the organisational structure and the bylaws regulating work at the DSC, and present these to the Board of Directors.
Pursuant
to this Law, all the rights, obligations, responsibilities, and powers of the Statistics
Centre of Dubai Municipality are transferred to the DSC. The DSC may transfer
to its employment, as it deems appropriate, any employee of the Statistics Centre of
Dubai Municipality, and appoint any new employees according to work
requirements.
In
regulating its accounts and records, the DSC will follow the recognised international
principles and rules of commercial accounting. The financial year of the DSC will
commence on 1 January and will end on 31 December of each year, except that the
first financial year of the DSC will commence on the date on which this Law
comes into force and will end on 31 December of the following year.
The
financial resources of the DSC will consist of:
1. the support allocated to the DSC in the general budget of the Emirate;
2. fees and charges for the services
provided by the DSC; and
3. any other resources approved by the
Executive Council.
Without
prejudice to any
penalty stipulated in any other law,
1. any person who breaches the confidentiality of any statistical data and information; uses it for other than its intended purposes; changes or modifies it; or sells, distributes, prints, or publishes any of such data and information, without obtaining the authorisation stated in Article (7) of this Law, will be punished by imprisonment or a fine not exceeding thirty thousand Dirhams (AED 30,000.00), or by both penalties; and
2. any person who:
a. wilfully disrupts any survey or census;
b. fails to provide required data or
provides false data (and any partial provision of required data within prescribed
timeframes is deemed failure to provide the required data, unless such delay is
proven to be for acceptable reasons);
c. obtains or attempts to obtain confidential data relating to any survey or census without being authorised to do so; or
d. knowingly publishes or causes the publication of false statistics or false outcomes of a census,
will be punished by imprisonment for up to three (3) months or by a fine not exceeding ten thousand Dirhams (AED 10,000.00), or by both penalties.
The DSC will be exempt from all local taxes and
fees.
The
Ruler will issue the implementing bylaw of this Law.
Law
No. (7) of 2001 Concerning the Statistics Centre of Dubai Municipality is
hereby repealed. Any provision in any other legislation will also be repealed
to the extent that it contradicts the provisions of this Law.
This
Law will be published in the Official Gazette and will come into force on the
day on which it is published.
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum
Ruler
of Dubai
Issued in Dubai on 16 October 2006
Corresponding to 24 Ramadan 1427 A.H.
© 2015 The Supreme Legislation Committee in the
Emirate of Dubai
[1]Every effort has been made to produce an
accurate and complete English version of this legislation. However, for the
purpose of its interpretation and application, reference must be made to the
original Arabic text. In case of conflict the Arabic text will prevail.