Statistics and Registration Service Bill

EU regulations and directives impose duties on member states as regards the collection of statistics and regulate the way in which they are collected. Community obligations are an important part of the UK Government’s responsibilities within the European Union. We currently provide significant amounts of information in response to our Community obligations; for example, member states are required to submit to Eurostat data on balance of payments, international trade in services and foreign direct investment for the production of Community statistics. I emphasise that we are not currently aware of any Community obligations that require disclosure of statistical information for a non-statistical purpose. However, the Government believe it necessary to ensure that this clause does not create a barrier to disclosure, in the event that a Community obligation should require this in the future. This is particularly necessary given the criminal sanctions in Clause 36. We certainly would not want somebody inadvertently to be criminalised because they had met a future Community obligation. Our obligations and responsibilities within the European Union are important. It would not be right to restrict disclosure where the Community required it. EC regulations are binding in their entirety and are directly applicable in member states. As a matter of law, any national provision that is inconsistent would need to be repealed in any case. The exception in Clause 36(4)(b) is required to ensure that there is sufficient flexibility for the future should a Community obligation require disclosure, whether or not that disclosure is for a statistical purpose. No legislation from the Community requires this at this stage, and nothing is imminent, but if we did not have any flexibility in this legislation, someone could be subject to criminal sanctions for obeying a European requirement to which we had properly assented. That is the reason for this element of flexibility, but I indicate again that there has been no instance of this disclosure being required by the European Community in the several decades for which it has existed.