Abstract
Labour inspection statistics play an important role in assisting governments, their ministries of labour and labour inspectorates, in the development of national policies, systems, programmes and strategies for labour inspection. They also allow governments to observe trends in labour markets and to better analyse compliance issues. The findings of the 2011 Report on Labour Administration and Labour Inspection, discussed at the 100th session of the International Labour Conference, highlighted a wide disparity and inconsistency in member States compilation of labour inspection statistics. It found that the collection, compilation, analysis, and use of labour inspection data varied widely from one country to another often due to differences in the allocation of resources, data collection systems and terms and definitions used. The report urged the use of a common methodology providing for a use of common terms and definitions thereby furthering the objective of harmonizing labour inspection statistics, with the ultimate aim of improving the consistency of labour inspection statistics provided by member States in their annual reports as required by the Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 (No. 81) and the Labour Inspection (Agriculture) Convention, 1969 (No. 129).