Administrative Resolution No.
(96) of 2016
Approving
the Conditions for Engaging in the
Activity
of Conducting Poll Studies[1]
ــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ
The Executive Director of the
Dubai Statistics Centre,
After
perusal of:
Law
No. (28) of 2015 Concerning the Dubai Statistics Centre; and
Executive
Council Resolution No. (39) of 2015 Regulating Poll Studies Firms Operating in
the Emirate of Dubai,
Does hereby issue this Resolution.
The following words and
expressions, wherever mentioned in this Resolution, will have the meaning
indicated opposite each of them unless the context implies otherwise:
|
UAE: |
The
United Arab Emirates. |
|
Emirate: |
The Emirate
of Dubai. |
|
DSC: |
The Dubai Statistics Centre. |
|
Licensing
Authority: |
The
commercial licensing authority responsible for licensing economic activities
in the Emirate. |
|
Activity: |
Conducting
Poll Studies for others in the Emirate. |
|
Person: |
A
natural or legal person. |
|
Firm: |
A
legal person licensed by the DSC and the Licensing Authority to conduct the
Activity in the Emirate. |
|
Permit: |
A
document issued by the DSC authorising a Firm to conduct the Activity in the
Emirate. |
|
Poll
Study: |
Survey
of opinions; measurement of trends;
and collection of data, information, and statistics on a particular matter
during a specific period of time through various direct and indirect
techniques and methods. |
|
Educational
Institution: |
A
school, university, college, institute, or similar institution. |
|
Surveyor: |
A Person
who surveys opinions and collects information in the course of conducting a
Poll Study. |
|
Certificate of Professional Competence: |
A
certificate issued by the DSC to the technical manager of a Firm, proving
that he has the experience and competency required to ensure the proper conduct,
credibility, and quality outcomes of Poll Studies. |
For a Firm to be granted a
Permit to conduct the Activity in the Emirate, the following conditions must be
met:
1. the
Firm must satisfy all the requirements approved by the Licensing Authority;
2. the
Firm must appoint a technical manager holding a Certificate of Professional
Competence;
3. the
Firm’s main area of business must be consistent with the Activity;
4. the
Firm’s owner must be of good character and repute, and not have been convicted
of a felony or other crime affecting honour or trustworthiness, unless he has
been rehabilitated or pardoned;
5. the
Firm’s owner must not be less than twenty-one (21) years of age; and
6. the
prescribed fee must be paid.
a.
To be issued with a Certificate of Professional
Competence, the technical manager of a Firm must:
1. be
of good character and repute, and not have been convicted of a felony or other crime
affecting honour or trustworthiness, unless he has been rehabilitated or
pardoned;
2. hold
a minimum academic qualification of a bachelor’s degree from an Educational Institution
accredited in the UAE;
3. pass
the Certificate of Professional Competence examination conducted by the DSC;
and
4. pay
the prescribed fee.
b.
A person who fails in the Certificate of
Professional Competence examination may retake the examination up to two (2)
times a year, provided that he pays the relevant prescribed fee.
c.
A Firm’s employee who meets the conditions referred to in paragraph (a) of this Article may apply for
a Certificate of Professional Competence.
d.
A Certificate of Professional Competence does not
authorise its holder to conduct Poll Studies in his personal capacity.
In conducting a Poll Study,
the following conditions must be observed:
1.
the
national security, leaders, image, or achievements of the UAE may not be
undermined; and issues that may result in discrimination or hate or in stirring
up sedition or sectarianism in the UAE may not be approached;
2.
the
legislation in force in the Emirate must be complied with;
3. all
matters relating to politics, religion, or ethnicity in the UAE may not be
approached without first obtaining the written approval of the DSC;
4. the
consent of the respondents to the Poll Study must be obtained prior to
conducting it; and they must be alerted that the information they give will be
recorded for the purposes of the Poll Study;
5. respondents to the Poll Study must be treated
respectfully, impartially, and objectively;
and may not be led or influenced, in any manner, to give specific responses;
6. any
person who is less than eighteen (18) years of age may not be polled without
the prior written approval of his guardian;
7. persons
with mental disabilities may not be polled;
8. respondents
may only be contacted between 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. as prescribed by the DSC.
A prior approval must be obtained from the DSC before conducting any Poll Study
beyond these timings;
9. students
may not be polled at Educational Institutions without first obtaining the
relevant written approval of the DSC;
10. recognised
scientific and statistical methodologies and techniques must be adopted to
ensure the quality of the results and outcomes of the Poll Study; and
11. the
approval of the competent entities must be obtained where the Poll Study is
conducted at a place within the jurisdiction of these entities. The policies
and conditions prescribed by these entities must be fully complied with.
a. An
entity other than a Firm may conduct
a Poll Study on its own account in accordance with the following conditions:
1. the
Poll Study must be conducted by that entity and employing its own resources;
2. the purpose of conducting
the Poll Study must be to measure the level of services, quality of products,
or satisfaction of the employees of that entity; and
3. the Poll Study may be
conducted only at any of the premises of that entity.
b. Where
any of the conditions stipulated in paragraph (a) of this Article is not met,
the Poll Study must be conducted by a Firm authorised by the DSC to conduct the
Activity.
In addition to the obligations prescribed by the
above-mentioned Executive Council Resolution No. (39) of 2015, a Firm must:
1. display its
Permit at a prominent place for easy reference by the public;
2. notify the DSC of the names
of its Surveyors and any change thereto;
3. appoint
a new technical manager, who holds the Certificate of Professional Competence,
within one (1) month from the date on which the position of technical manager
falls vacant;
4. qualify
and train Surveyors and verify their competence to conduct Poll Studies;
5. educate Surveyors on the legal aspects of Poll Studies, and acquaint them
with the ethics and recognised principles of survey work; and
6. maintain,
for the period prescribed by the DSC, a special register to record the outcomes
of the Poll Studies conducted by the Firm.
a.
The DSC will issue each Surveyor
with an identification card proving that its holder is authorised to conduct
Poll Studies in the Emirate.
b.
A
Surveyor’s identification card must include:
1.
his
name;
2.
the
name of the Firm in which
he works; and
3.
any
other information the DSC deems necessary to include on the identification
card.
c.
A
Surveyor may use his identification card only for its intended purposes. In
particular, he must:
1.
not
allow others to use his identification card;
2.
present
the identification card to the respondents in the course of conducting any Poll
Study, or when requested;
3.
notify
the DSC in case the identification card is lost or damaged;
4.
not
change, deface, delete, or add to, the information included on the
identification card; and
5.
surrender
the identification card to the Firm upon the end of his service with it.
Field Poll Studies may not
be conducted at residences, labour compounds, or places of worship.
This Resolution comes
into force on the day on which it is issued, and will be published in the
Official Gazette.
Arif
Obaid Al Muhairi
Executive Director
Issued in Dubai on 21 November 2016
Corresponding to 21 Safar 1438 A.H.
©2016 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.