Statistics and Registration Service Bill

I hope that I can reassure all noble Lords because this is, in a sense, a technical amendment. Amendment No. 28 would create a time limit of10 years, which is the limit contained in the current OCPA guidance. The noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, said many things that I absolutely agree with. She mentioned the rules of corporate governance—and here we have the OCPA guidance, which is widely accepted for public appointments. However, we want to maintain flexibility and consistency in case, for any reason, the OCPA guidance should change in future, for example; so it seems sensible not to specify the maximum period in legislation. For example, good practice may be that the period should be somewhat shorter, or even a bit longer in a few years, in the light of further experience with appointments of this type. Whatever happens, it is the Government’s intention to continue to follow OCPA guidance. To answer a point raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, which was also referred to by the noble Lord, Lord Turnbull, we would not usually expectto appoint for a year alone, but there may be circumstances in which a reappointment is made and a year or two years is appropriate. That takes up the noble Lord’s point about continuity and ensuring that not all non-executive members leave at once. I hope that it reassures noble Lords who have spoken in this brief debate that we will continue to follow the OCPA guidance rules.