Statistics and Registration Service Bill

It may be convenient to the Committee if I speak to my clause-stand-part Question at this time. In common with Clause 24, the scope of the clause, in so far as it is not confined to the statistical functions of the board, is extremely wide. The board would be empowered to, "““disclose any information obtained by it””—" that is to say, to include any and all administrative data within its purview—to, "““any person providing services to the Board””." Accordingly, as I understand the drafting, any public authority, in so far as it provides the ““service”” of disseminating raw data to the board, could qualify under the terms of the clause and have disclosed to it information held by the board. To that extent, my impression is that the clause could facilitate a ““revolving door”” policy in respect of data-sharing; that is to say, notwithstanding earlier comments from the Minister, data could be disseminated to the board by one authority effectively for onward transmission to any other. Of course, I acknowledge that much depends upon the meaning, in its context, of the phrase ““service providers””. It would be helpful, therefore, if the Minister could clarify the Government’s thinking, perhaps even providing practical examples of the sort of companies, institutions or even to whom the provision is intended to apply.