Statistics and Registration Service Bill

I find that reply deeply unsatisfactory and I will want to study what the Minister has said. He does not appear in any way to have addressed the argument put to the Committee by the noble Lord, Lord Moser, who said that this requirement is made by every other statistical office. I feel that the Government are leaving too much to the discretion of the board and the National Statistician. Surely, planning must be a central function and I cannot understand why it should not be specified in the Bill. However, the Minister has said that the Government will not give way on this tonight. We shall need to return to the matter at some stage but, in the mean time, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.