Statistics and Registration Service Bill

My Lords, my name is attached to the amendment, along with that of the noble Lord, Lord Dearing. It is relevant to think about the policy background, particularly the growing realisation that many aspects of public policy are best delivered at regional or, more often, local level. Indeed, the incoming Prime Minister has made a number of speeches to this effect. One can think of a number of policy areas where it makes sense to have the maximum amount of discretion to work together across public policies to deliver goals which are widely accepted as desirable. One example of the need for joined-up thinking is the Every Child Matters agenda which, by its very nature, requires local authorities to pull together a raft of services to make sure that children are better provided for. Another example, which is currently in vogue, is community cohesion. There is no simple bit of local government that is responsible; there needs to be joined-up thinking. For local authorities to do that work, they need the best-possible statistics. Statistics which simply show national trends are all very well, but they cannot be treated as a reliable indication of what is happening in a local authority area. A major source of disquiet, as your Lordships will be aware, relates to immigration statistics in London. I have a copy of a letter which Councillor Merrick Cockell, who is chairman of London Councils, sent last month to the Financial Secretary. He expressed in it his concern that the new methodology of the Office for National Statistics for estimating numbers of international migrants in London is simply inadequate. Local authorities in London which have undertaken surveys on the number of migrants have found that over time their estimates have increasingly diverged from those provided by the ONS. Without trying to determine today who is right in this argument, I should make the point that there are major issues surrounding statistics which need adequately to be addressed at local level. The ONS does its best on them, but, according to the local authorities involved, it sometimes fails to produce the work which they require. The way in which the legislation for the Statistics Board is framed looks very much towards Ministers rather than local areas. In those circumstances, it is relatively easy for the board to concentrate its efforts on looking at the statistics that are produced at national level and showing secondary concern for statistics that are produced at local level, important though they may be. Many local statistics are official, but not national, so there is an additional problem even in getting them looked at. The amendment simply ensures that there is a member of the board who is cognisant of the ways of local government and who can bear it in mind when taking decisions. It is a worthwhile proposal, and I hope that the Minister will support it.