Statistics and Registration Service Bill

My Lords, I added my name to my noble friend’s amendments. He introduced them in a masterly way, and there is little additional material for us to cover. My main concern is that what the Minister said on Report and the nature of the amendments that were accepted then have created uncertainty. Until that moment, the status of the code in relation to non-governmental preparers of statistics—those that are not preparing official statistics—was not unclear. The Bank of England, for example, produces a number of statistics. I understand that they are not official statistics. Does the Bank of England now have to regard the code of practice as useful guidance, or is it something entirely on a higher plane? That is very unhelpful. The noble Lord, Lord Newby, spotted, as indeed I did, that the text of the Bill had not caught up. Of course we are not allowed to amend headings. I am told—my noble friend Lord Jenkin has raised this with the Public Bill Office—that the Bill will catch up as the headings do not yet reflect the amendments that were passed last time. So I do not think that we need worry on that score. I have one further question for the Minister. Is the Statistics Board obliged to call this the code for statistics or may it use some more sensible title like the code for official statistics?