Statistics and Registration Service Bill

moved Amendment No. 158: 158: Clause 29, page 13, line 8, at end insert— ““( ) The executive office established under subsection (5) shall be known as the Office for National Statistics.”” The noble Baroness said: Amendment No. 158 states that the name of the executive office created by Clause 29(5) shall be the Office for National Statistics. In Clause 52, both the Office for National Statistics and the Statistics Commission are officially killed off. In Clause 53, however, the property, rights and liabilities of the ONS are transferred to the Statistics Board. Under Clause 29(5), the National Statistician must establish an executive office. Although the Bill and the Explanatory Notes are silent on this, I understand, not least from the meeting that the Minister organised with Mr John Healey before Second Reading, that in effect the ONS will live on in the new executive office. I am sure that the parliamentary draftsman had a good reason for killing off the ONS in one part of the Bill and resurrecting it under no name in another part of the Bill, but it would be clearer if the Bill made it plain that the new executive office is indeed the successor to the ONS and that it proudly bears its name. The noble Lord, Lord Moser, reminded us at Second Reading that: "““The ONS is widely and rightly regarded as one of the best statistical offices in the world””,—[Official Report, 26/3/07; col. 1455.]" and that the problems addressed by the Bill lie elsewhere and not in the ONS itself. The Minister did not dissent from that proposition in his winding-up speech that day, and I hope that he will confirm that the Government indeed recognise and value the strength of the ONS. Given that there is brand value in the ONS, it seems perverse that its name and brand are being consigned to history. It would be far better to preserve the name in the Bill and to make clear its continuity in the world of statistics, both nationally and internationally. I beg to move.