Clause 6
Statistics and Registration Service Bill
1:45 pm
Mark Hoban (Shadow Minister, Treasury; Fareham, Conservative)
We could discuss many issues in the context of clause 6, a number of which will come up in the more detailed debate on the later sections. I want to ask a couple of questions of detail in connection with the clause and how it will operate in practice. I want to start with clause 6(2), which talks about an order that will be brought forward to specify
“statistics produced or to be produced by a particular person or description of a person.”
Those are statistics produced by non-governmental Departments and other Crown bodies that do not fall within the definitions set out in sub-paragraphs (i) to (vi) of clause 6(1)(a). Subsection (3) states:
“Before making an order under subsection (1)(b) an authority referred to in that provision must consult the Board.”
It must consult the statistics board, but it is not clear what the board is to be consulted on and what opinion it is to offer on any statistics that might be put forward in the order under subsection (2). Clause 12, which we will debate later, contains a process of assessment when an official statistic is nominated to become a national statistic. I assume that the procedure envisaged under subsection (3) will be softer than the formal assessment for inclusion as a national statistic. It is not entirely clear whether that is the case or to what extent a statistic specified by order should comply with the methodology outlined in clause 9. If the board is to be able to exercise its functions appropriately it would be helpful if the Minister could give some guidance on that point.
I assume that the board will be able to produce the list referred to in subsection (4) because of the order-making power in subsection (1)(b). I also assume that there is no comparable existing list of official statistics that the Committee and others could scrutinise. The definition of official statistics in subsection (1) is so broad that it could encompass virtually anything numerical that the Government might use, but I am not sure whether it will.
In subsection (5), the term “Welsh ministerial authority” is defined as encompassing three elements: the Welsh Ministers, the First Minister and the Counsel General to the Welsh Assembly Government. I am not as familiar as the hon. Member for Cardiff, West, the right hon. Member for Cardiff, South and Penarth or other members from Welsh constituencies with the mechanisms of government in Wales. Why is that provision in place for Wales but not for the devolved Administrations of Scotland and Northern Ireland?