Statistics and Registration Service Bill

My Lords, the amendment would add another category of consultee to Clause 3(4), but our preference would be not to have that subsection at all. As my noble friend Lord Jenkin said, there is a problem as to where it should end with regard to which bodies you consult. The most important thing is that the Statistics Board includes excellent people, who will lay the foundations for an independent board committed to excellence in public statistics and restoring trust in those statistics. Any mention of a consultation, albeit that it falls short of representativeness, runs the risk of tokenism. To that extent, we are unsure about adding to the list, although we completely understand the logic of what the noble Lord, Lord Dearing, proposed. As my noble friend Lord Jenkin pointed out, I have tried to address the undoubted needs of local government to be reflected in the work of the Statistics Board in the Amendments Nos. 3 and 4 to which I shall come later. We sympathise completely with what lies at the heart of the noble Lord’s amendment, but we are less than convinced that it is the right mechanism.