Chair calls for changes to governance of UK statistics

• Letter from Rt Hon. Andrew Tyrie MP to Sir Charles Bean, 26 February 2016
• Treasury Committee

Chair's comments

Commenting on the correspondence, Mr Tyrie said:

"The Chancellor should use the Budget to improve the quality of the UK's national statistics. This area badly needs a shake up. I very much hope Sir Charles Bean – the independent reviewer appointed to sort out the weaknesses in official statistics – can produce his final report in time for the Budget. His interim report was trenchant about the defects in current arrangements and the need for remedy. The Chancellor should act.

A few weeks ago, Sir Charles asked the Treasury Committee for some ideas for how to improve public scrutiny and oversight of data collection. Sir Charles will no doubt have his own ideas. The Committee will examine those in depth once his final report is published. In the meantime, on behalf of the Committee, I have written to him with some suggestions.

First, the UK Statistics Authority has been marking its own homework for years – operating as both producer and regulator of official statistics. This should end. It cannot do both jobs to best effect. In any case, regular examination of the quality of statistics produced by the ONS is currently lacking. This is extraordinary. A small advisory body should be established to perform this role. Among other things, it should have a public duty to blow the whistle when it identifies a cause for concern.

Second, departmental responsibilities in Whitehall need to change. Many of the bodies that rely on the production of high quality statistics – the Bank of England and the OBR, for instance – are the responsibility of the Treasury. But the UK Statistics Authority is the responsibility of the Cabinet Office, which has little or no skin in the game. Responsibility of statistics should probably be returned to the Treasury.

Third, the independence of the UK Statistics Authority, and of the ONS, need to be bolstered. These bodies cannot afford to allow their independence to be compromised. Even the appearance of being vulnerable to pressure from the Government is unacceptable. Sir Charles should consider how better to protect them. Their independence could be reinforced if the National Statistician and the Chairman of the UK Statistics Authority were subject to full pre-appointment scrutiny by Parliament: in practice, by the Treasury Committee. The OBR's independence – since its creation in 2010 – has been similarly bolstered. That arrangement is generally considered to have been a success.

Most of what is required may be achievable within existing statute. But if primary legislation can offer the prospect of better statistics, not least by entrenching in statute the independence of the National Statistician and the Chairman of the UK Statistics Authority, the government should provide the necessary parliamentary time for it. Numbers matter – no doubt the forthcoming EU referendum will illustrate the point."

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