Statistics and Registration Service Bill

Is it not perfectly consistent with what the noble Lords, Lord Newby and Lord Moser, and I have been arguing that the National Statistician should have full responsibility for the production and dissemination of statistics? If disputes arise, the board can give the National Statistician its full support without itself becoming responsible for any of the professional work that the statistician has done. The board will have a scrutiny role, and it will presumably be able to say, ““We are satisfied by the processes, and therefore we believe that she is absolutely right, and we back her””. Does that not meet the case that the noble Lord, Lord Desai, has been making?