---

Statistics and Registration Service Bill

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 co-ordination in statistics across Whitehall. He placed the new statistics office in the Cabinet Office. It remained there happily—including during the many years I was in charge of it—and moved to the Treasury in, I think, 1989. The welcome for its move back to the Cabinet Office has nothing to do with any negative feelings about the Treasury; indeed, I am confident that since 1989 the Treasury has looked after government statistics very carefully, especially economic statistics. However, there is no doubt that it had a conflict of interest because of its leadership in economic affairs, whereas the Cabinet Office is a consumer-neutral department, so to speak. Therefore, it makes total sense that these responsibilities should go back there. I wish the Minister for the Cabinet Office, who will not have the ultimate responsibility, well in this task. I am sure that this new situation will help the reforms that we have debated.