Statistics and Registration Service Bill

My Lords, this is a straightforward, clear amendment. It deals with the issue with which we have grappled all the way through the Bill: how we can ensure that the Bill, to the maximum possible extent, enhances trust in official statistics. Giving the Information Commissioner the powers set out in subsection (1) of the amendment provides another piece of the framework in which individuals can have trust not only that the system is robust but that if there is a problem it can be dealt with. As previous speakers have said, in this area many people will be unaware that information about them is being misused. To give the commissioner the chance to go in on his own initiative makes a great deal of sense. I, too, am grateful for the letter which the Minister circulated on 20 June. He said in the House that the Information Commissioner had been very positive about the Statistics and Registration Service Bill. However, there is a wonderful weasel word in the letter, which states: "““As I have said in the House, overall the Information Commissioner has been very positive””." If ““overall”” is very positive, there must be some matters on which he has been negative and that has made me slightly suspicious. I am sure that is being unfair to the Minister but perhaps he can explain why it was an ““on balance”” enthusiasm by the Information Commissioner rather than the unalloyed joy that the Minister suggested he felt.