Statistics and Registration Service Bill

moved Amendment No. 151: 151: Clause 29, page 12, line 38, leave out subsection (2) The noble Baroness said: I shall speak also to the other amendments in the group that stand in my name and that of my noble friend Lord Howard of Rising. These probing amendments concern the executive functions of the National Statistician set out in Clause 29, the functions of the board and who actually controls the exercise or delegation of those functions. The board is set up with a number of functions, as set out throughout the Bill, particularly in Clauses 8 to 19. These are explicitly drafted in the Bill for the board. We have debated whether some or all of these functions should be assigned to the National Statistician and we will be returning to that subject at later stages of the Bill. When we get to Clause 29 and the National Statistician’s functions, we find in subsection (2) that: "““The National Statistician may … exercise any of the functions of the Board””," and, further, in subsection (7) that he ““may delegate”” the functions, "““to any other member of the executive office””." I am not sure that is the right scheme of powers. If the board is given functions under the Bill, it is the board which should decide on how they should be exercised. That is separate from the National Statistician being given defined powers under the Bill. The Minister was keen on citing the corporate practice and the combined code when we debated the structure of the board right at the beginning of Committee. What the Bill does is very far from commercial practice. If this was a listed company, the board would have the power to do everything and would formally set down those things it reserved to itself. The premise behind these amendments is that it cannot be right that the National Statistician has the power to exercise any of the functions of the board without reference to the board. I have tabled two alternative ways to deal with this. The first is, in Amendments Nos. 151 and 160, to delete Clause 29(2), (7) and (8), which would make the Bill silent on who is to exercise the functions. I believe that it would remain open to the board to empower the National Statistician to carry out all or any of its functions and to delegate to other members of the executive office. I do not believe that removing the subsections would prohibit the board and the National Statistician from working on a perfectly satisfactory basis, but the board would be in the driving seat. However, if there is to be some explicit mention of the National Statistician’s powers to carry out the functions of the board and to delegate them as necessary, they should be subject to the consent of the board, which is what Amendment Nos. 153 and 161 achieve. A further option, which I have not drafted, would be to let the board decide what functions it reserved to itself. That would line up with practice in the commercial world. My two sets of amendments achieve the same result. I ask the Minister to tell us what role the board will have under the Bill as it stands. It seems that the National Statistician has total freedom to choose what he or she does. I beg to move.