Clause 5
Statistics and Registration Service Bill
9:30 am
David Gauke (South West Hertfordshire, Conservative)
Thank you, Sir John. I am grateful for the intervention of my hon. Friend the Member for Fareham. I shall not dwell on it, but he makes a good point.
Amendments Nos. 97 and 127 to clause 28 address the same point about the role of the National Statistician in respect of official statistics that are not national statistics. I shall not labour the point, but there is much outside concern about the issue. The arguments are similar to those that applied to amendments Nos. 29 and 98. How does the statistics board or the National Statistician deal with official statistics? Amendments Nos. 97 and 127 seek to provide a role for the National Statistician in giving advice to the Government on official statistics—largely departmental statistics. It would be a useful addition to the Bill to enable the National Statistician not to exercise control in absolute terms—we would still retain a decentralised system—but to perform a greater role in guiding and advising the Government.