Results 1-20 of 72 for in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates' speaker:Lord Moser

Universities: Impact of Government Policy — Debate (13 October 2011)

Lord Moser: My Lords, I, too, am very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Giddens, for this opportunity to talk about universities. As all noble Lords have said, they are one of the country's greatest treasures. I have been lucky to spend almost all my working life as an academic, university chancellor, head of an Oxford college and, perhaps most precious of all to me, working with Lord Robbins and his...

Arts: Funding — Debate (3 February 2011)

Lord Moser: My Lords, I, too, thank the noble Earl for giving us this opportunity for debate, and congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell, on her remarkable maiden speech and on all that she has done and will continue to do for the arts. I have spent much of my own life involved in the arts, and sometimes have not been popular. Years ago, an Arts Minister said in Parliament, "We are all used to...

Census — Question (15 December 2010)

Lord Moser: My Lords-

Census — Question (15 December 2010)

Lord Moser: Perhaps I should declare an interest in that I used to be responsible for the census, I do not know how many years ago. There is no question that the traditional census is of enormous importance for the country to understand our population, migration and much else. I am delighted that next year's census is going ahead, as planned. That is good news. As to the future, however, there are now...

Census — Question (15 December 2010)

Lord Moser: Will the Minister assure us that following those alternatives, which are very complicated, will have full support and collaboration from the Government?

Barnett Formula — Motion to Take Note (11 March 2010)

Lord Moser: My Lords, I also speak as a member of the committee which, like the noble Lord, Lord Lawson, I enjoyed enormously. It was agreeable and, thanks to our chairman, we were led with great calmness through this rather complex issue towards total unanimity. Of course, the statistical side interested me particularly. I also want to pay my tribute in retrospect to the ingenuity of the noble Lord,...

Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill: Second Reading (2 June 2009)

Lord Moser: My Lords, I have long been involved with issues of basic skills, and I was very disappointed, and rather surprised, that the Bill pays so little attention to this area. Basic skills are absolutely basic to all aspects of education, for all skills and for apprenticeships. I am referring, of course, to literacy and numeracy. I have a personal interest in focusing on this since the Government's...

Government Statistics — Question for Short Debate (1 June 2009)

Lord Moser: My Lords, I have spent much of my working life in official statistics, inevitably with issues of public trust never very far from my mind, so the initiative and comments of the noble Lord, Lord Hamilton, are very welcome, not least in these generally untrusting times. I am rather optimistic. For one thing, we have a very good statistical service. Most people who know the international field,...

Immigration (EAC Report) (14 November 2008)

Lord Moser: My Lords, I will confine myself to two aspects of the report: the state of our migration statistics and the committee's central macro conclusion that the economic impact of immigration was extremely limited—near zero. Given the limit of the empirical evidence available to the committee, and the state of our migration statistics, I must say that I felt surprised that it felt able to come...

Liaison Committee (16 July 2008)

Lord Moser: My Lords, I speak as a member of the Liaison Committee. I was very pleased that when the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, first made the proposal it was approved by the Committee, as has been noted, and was then passed by the whole House some months ago. I also express my appreciation to the Leader for her efforts in getting this through. I shall explain why I regard it as a serious setback for the...

Statistics Board (29 November 2007)

Lord Moser: My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin of Roding, for initiating this short debate. The subject—the future role of Parliament in the reformed system of government statistics—is of enormous importance and I agree with the chairman of the Statistics Commission just quoted that the success of the reforms depends considerably on the role of Parliament. As we have...

Statistics and Registration Service Bill (19 July 2007)

Lord Moser: My Lords, my views are very similar to those of the previous speakers. The amendment proposed by the other House is not quite what we had in mind throughout our debates. As far as I understand it, it does not cover the place of pre-release in the code and it still leaves far more control to Ministers than we think is desirable. However, like the noble Lord, I do not want to be churlish. The...

Statistics and Registration Service Bill (9 July 2007)

Lord Moser: My Lords, the issue of pre-release has been with us throughout these debates. I support the amendment proposed by the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, and I shall explain how it fits into the context of the Bill as a whole. The whole thing started back in November 2005, when the Chancellor decided to legislate for independence in statistics, principally to improve public trust in official...

Statistics and Registration Service Bill (9 July 2007)

Lord Moser: My Lords, I hope I am right in thinking that at this stage we are simply discussing release arrangements and not pre-release. On those, I ally myself completely with the remarks of the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes. The idea of the hub is a good development in that it would seem to centralise publication of statistics, and take it further away from political comment. If I am right in thinking...

Statistics and Registration Service Bill (9 July 2007)

Lord Moser: My Lords, I welcome the Government's acceptance in principle of this amendment, so that ultimate responsibility for what are now called the residual responsibilities will go back to the Cabinet Office. I remind your Lordships of a nice historical point. When Winston Churchill established the first statistics office in 1941, he set up a central office because of the lack of coherence and...

Statistics and Registration Service Bill (18 June 2007)

Lord Moser: My Lords, I support the amendment, and I speak only because my name was mentioned. It is true that in my day the role of the post of what is now called the National Statistician—then the director of the Central Statistical Office—came directly under the Prime Minister. I was directly responsible to the Prime Minister, and this was real. I served three Prime Ministers, all of whom...

Statistics and Registration Service Bill (18 June 2007)

Lord Moser: My Lords, I rise only because I fussed about this point at every stage of Bill. My reactions are the same as those of the noble Lord, Lord Turnbull, and I am grateful to the Government for taking this step, although it is a bit complex.

Statistics and Registration Service Bill (18 June 2007)

Lord Moser: My Lords, this is an important amendment, and I hope that the Minister will accept it. This legislation has had to face a fundamental problem from the very beginning; namely, that we have a decentralised system. One needs only to think how easy it would be if we had a single statistics office as is the case in most countries. Some of the problems that we have spent time discussing would not...

Statistics and Registration Service Bill (18 June 2007)

Lord Moser: My Lords, we have had many months of discussion on the Bill—public discussion and consultation and discussion in the other place and here—and much of it has obviously centred on the organisational structure envisaged under the new reforms. I have looked at the present version of the Bill and today's amendments and have thought back a little to the concerns that I and others have...

Universities: Anti-Semitism (12 June 2007)

Lord Moser: My Lords, I will list the points that I wanted to develop. First, a boycott would be totally misguided. It would offend against academic freedom and destroy precious bridges between academics internationally. Politically, it would help no one, contributing nothing to solving Middle East problems. I hope that the rational arguments against it will prevail within universities. Most importantly,...