Statistics and Registration Service Bill

Let me add one more thing to what the noble Lord, Lord Turnbull, said, with whom I agree. Statistics are a technical matter, and we require a technically competent National Statistician to be in charge of them. However, there are statistics thatwill be socially explosive. I mentioned the census in my Second Reading speech. Questions of census definitions of identity will come. I would prefer it not to be the National Statistician who takes the heat of the moment but the board and especially the chairman of the board. We must remember that statistics may look technical to statisticians, buta lot of people view them as quite incendiary,explosive stuff. For that, we need the board to protect the National Statistician and to allow theNational Statistician to do his or her work as well as possible.