Statistics and Registration Service Bill

Yes, that is right. The National Statistician is an enormously important job and the Bill should reflect that explicitly. We are particularly concerned to take on board the constructive criticisms of the Royal Statistical Society and the Statistics Commission, which argued that there must be a ““demonstrable separation of powers”” between the National Statistician and the non-executive members of the board. There is no fundamental reason why they should not work together as part of the same structure, provided that that separation of powers is made absolutely clear. Our amendments are designed to complement the arrangement favoured by the hon. Member for Chipping Barnet, and I do not think that they conflict with it. They have specific aims, the first of which is to define the roles of the National Statistician and the board. Amendment No. 42 states that the National Statistician is to be"““employed to operate independently of the Board with scrutiny and oversight of the role provided by the Board.””" That makes it clear that delivery and scrutiny are separate functions, even within the board itself. Amendment No. 43 states that the National Statistician must be accountable to the board, whose role will be to monitor and assess his or her performance. Amendments Nos. 39 and 45 are designed to deal with the point raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Falmouth and Camborne (Julia Goldsworthy), in defining more fully, and stressing the importance of, the National Statistician’s role. They make clear that the National Statistician is the Government’s principal adviser on statistics, and that he or she is there to give professional leadership to Government statisticians as a whole. They also make it clear that the National Statistician’s role is to co-ordinate statistics across Government, and to promote them consistently across the United Kingdom. I do not think that any of those definitions conflicts with the way in which the Government see the National Statistician’s role; they merely make it explicit. Amendments Nos. 46 and 47 are, perhaps, particularly crucial. They concern the placing of the word ““not””, which is rather important. Clause 29(4) currently states"““The Board may direct the National Statistician… not to exercise a particular function, or… as to how he””" —although in this case it should be ““she””—"““should exercise a particular function.””" That cuts across what should be the Bill’s aim, which is to separate the functions of the National Statistician and the non-executive members of the board.