Statistics and Registration Service Bill

moved Amendment No. 179: 179: Clause 36, page 15, line 33, at end insert ““and only where the information is being made available for statistical purposes”” The noble Baroness said: I was confused earlier by the noble Lord, Lord Newby, not moving Amendment No. 174, with which Amendment No. 179 was grouped. Since we have now reached Amendment No. 179 on the Marshalled List, I shall exercise my right to move it. Noble Lords will know that we on these Benches have a fair degree of suspicion about the designs of the European Community on matters within our national competence. We can just about see that there might be statistical obligations within the Community that require disclosure of personal information. We are not convinced that that is the case, but we are prepared to give the benefit of the doubt. However, we are wholly resistant to the notion that the Statistics Board, which is the guardian of personal information for statistical purposes within the UK, should have any right or obligation to pass on personal information under Community laws that are not statistical in origin. That is a step too far and it should be resisted. I beg to move.