Statistics and Registration Service Bill

I am grateful to all Members of the Committee who have spoken in this debate. I am extremely pleased that the Minister is to give further thought to the points made. Everyone is after truth in this area rather than attempting to take a partisan or an acrimonious view. Whatever the Bill says, the kind of problems that we will end up with were exemplified by the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Turnbull, about how best to protect the National Statistician when he or she has exercised technical judgment to the best of their ability. Is that best done by the board saying, ““Actually, it was our decision and not just hers””, or is it best done by the board saying, ““We employ her to take that responsibility; we have looked at the way in which she has exercised her responsibility; she has done it in a perfectly proper way and we support it””? Those are two ways of dealing with that problem and neither delivers a knockout blow to the other. I welcome the fact that the Minister is prepared to take all these concerns away for further consideration and deal with them on Report. Bearing that in mind, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.