Statistics and Registration Service Bill

I thank the noble Viscount for presenting his opposition to the clause in such a constructive way, although obviously we regard this provision as important. I am afraid that I am obliged to reiterate the role of the head of assessment in the way I did when responding to the previous amendment. The head of assessment is not a competing voice to the board’s chief adviser—the chief executive in the form of the National Statistician. While the National Statistician will advise the board on its wide range of statistical functions, the role of the head of assessment will be strongly focused on supporting the board in one, and only one, of its key functions, that of assessment. I recognise from the response of the noble Baroness to my explanation on the previous amendments that I have not as yet won the argument and achieved total conviction. We have further stages where these issues may be pursued. I shall study what has been said this evening in criticism of the government model in Hansard carefully, and I hope that the replies from this Box will also be studied with care. We believe that the Bill gives a clear prescription of the role of the National Statistician and the enhancement of that position as the chief executive of the board and head of national statistics, and of the assessment function with which the board is properly charged which is separate from that. I hope that if we return to this subject on another occasion, noble Lords will have looked at these arguments as carefully as I intend to.