Statistics and Registration Service Bill

No, I shall not take any more interventions. The odd thing about the debate is that Opposition Members seemed to start off by calling for consensus but then immediately moved on to partial political diatribe. The hon. Member for Chipping Barnet began her speech by pointing out that she would support the Bill, saying that it was a step in the right direction, yet then tried to claim that trust in statistics was at an all-time low and that issues of transparency, honesty and public trust were matters for the Government. However, I have to tell her that it was the Labour Government, not the last Conservative Government, who made the Bank of England independent. In 1997 there was no code for fiscal stability. The previous Government never had the foresight or courage to make the ONS independent of Ministers. The reality was that however many times they fiddled the figures, they could not conceal the truth. Before 1997, the previous Government changed the definition of unemployment 32 times, but they still could not conceal the fact that unemployment went above 3 million. They tried a series of different aggregates for monetary policy, but could not prevent inflation from going above 10 per cent. They fiddled the definition of the public sector borrowing requirement and ended up being forced to exclude privatisation proceeds from the official count, but they still could not stop borrowing going above £100 billion. In 1994 they tried to fiddle the inflation target and to introduce a new target of 1 per cent. to 4 per cent., but they could not avoid the fact that the inflation target was missed in 48 out of 52 months in the period up to 1997. They changed the fiscal rules every year. We have had the same fiscal rules since 1997, but under the previous Government there was a different fiscal rule every year. Whether they specified back to balance, in balance, or in surplus close to balance, they still could not disguise the fact that in the last cycle the golden rule was broken by £240 billion. We are proud of our record of a strong economy, low national debt, the lowest unemployment for 30 years and the lowest interest rates for 40 years. The Bill lays the foundations for a strong and stable economy and a statistical system fit for the 21st century. We are confident that we will create for the first time in our history a strong and successful system that is fully independent. As my hon. Friend the Financial Secretary said, the key to the system is the scrutiny of Parliament, which, in the case of the Bill, should now proceed in Committee. I commend the Bill to the House. Question put and agreed to. Bill accordingly read a Second time.