Statistics and Registration Service Bill

I am extremely grateful for the intervention of my noble friend Lord Jenkin because he has reminded us what it is we seek with the Bill. The Minister said that he hoped that later on he would be more convincing, in that he has recognised he has not been very convincing to date. The Minister said that the non-ministerial department model was—and I quote him—““satisfactory””. Satisfactory is not what we are trying to seek with the Bill; we are trying to seek the best possible solution. I asked the Minister whether there were any precedents for an organisation that mixed oversight functions with execution functions. I do not think I heard an answer to that. However, the purpose of tabling the amendment was not to seek the opinion of the Committee; it was to press the important issues that arise out of the model created by the Government. That is why it is so interesting that the Minister went back to the funding model yet again. We will clearly need to do a lot more work on this before the Bill leaves this House. Clause 2 agreed to. Clause 3 [Members]: