Statistics and Registration Service Bill

I am in general support of the amendment. The relevant clause says, ““at least five””. It is up to the board to have as many members as it likes. It does not say, ““no more than five””. There should be room for more, but I am more concerned that we might begin to add non-executive members, on a variety of principles, without any real logic. Yes, perhaps English regions should be there, but someone will then say, ““What about London or Cornwall?””, and so on. I would prefer clarification from the Minister that ““at least”” means ““at least””—that more are allowed. It should then be up to the board, having followed the debates in Committee, to determine the principles whereby it would induct more non-executive members.