Statistics and Registration Service Bill

I am grateful to my noble friend on the Front Bench for what she said about the involvement of both Houses in any parliamentary scrutiny of the Statistics Board and the whole process. Since I first raised the point in the debate on the Loyal Address in response to Her Majesty’s speech, I have been struck by the amount of support for the measure in both Houses. I do not say that support is unanimous in another place but there are certainly voices there that recognise that there is considerable expertise in this House and that the involvement of both Houses would add considerably to the authority of the parliamentary scrutiny of this whole process. As I made clear then, this is not a matter ultimately for the Bill, although amendments are tabled; it is a matter for agreement between the usual channels—I understand that. I and, I have no doubt, others have brought the matter to the attention of the usual channels and I hope that a good result may emerge. My noble friend’s amendment on resources, to which she referred, is grouped with this one and appears right at the end of the Marshalled List. This is always seen as a very important element of the statistics arrangements of any country. We shall discuss this matter later. I have tabled an amendment on the European principles on statistics. Principle 3, headed ““Adequacy of Resources””, states: "““The resources available to statistical authorities must be sufficient to meet European statistics requirements””." That does not mean the Commission’s requirements; it means the requirements of all the members of the European Union. It is made perfectly clear in the rest of the document that that includes the national requirements of individual countries. I will not read any more. All I am saying is that it is clear that adequacy of resources must be part of the independence of the statistical service. If at any stage it is felt that the National Statistician or the board have to go, as it were, on bended knee to the Treasury and say that they must have more resources to be able to do what is required of them, that immediately puts them in danger of being subject to Treasury pressure. One can see the sort of terms that the Treasury might impose as part of a deal to get more money. I just do not think that that is right. I have one other example. Of course, this is not typical, but both Houses of Parliament are responsible for their own financing, and it is of the most enormous importance to the independence of Parliament that we are not subject to a cash limit and do not have to beg the Treasury each year for allowances. Of course we must be responsible, and of course we must have arrangements—as we do—to make sure that the country gets value for money, but Parliament, to ensure its independence, is responsible for its own financing. Although not a complete parallel, the statistical service is of the same sort of importance as Parliament in terms of establishing trust in the functions that it performs. I do not intend to take up a lot of the Committee’s time, but we must never forget that we are engaged in a process of seeking to restore public trust. The amendments in the group, in particular Amendments Nos. 237 and 238, would go some way towards doing that. I hope that both Houses may be involved in that process.