The
Treasury Select Committee has urged government to extend the
scope of its proposed legislation on independence for statistics,
following the publication of the government’s consultation
paper, Independence for statistics.
The paper proposes that the Office for National Statistics
(ONS) should be replaced with a non-ministerial statistics
department governed by an independent board. However, the
Treasury Sub-Committee chairman Michael Fallon MP said that
while this was a step in the right direction, more radical
reform was needed in order to make government statistics more
demonstrably independent.
“Public confidence in official statistics is the
key to reform,” Fallon said. “Confidence is
currently at a worryingly low level, with just 17% of adults
in Great Britain believing that official statistics are
produced without political interference, and only 14% saying
the government uses official figures honestly."
The Committee not only questions how much impact reform
of the ONS alone would have – as it is only responsible
for 250 or the 1,450 datasets produced by members of the
Government Statistical Service – but warns that as
ministers would remain responsible for statistics from within
their departments, the perceived independence of the statistics
system could be damaged.
Fallon added: “The government mustn’t miss
this opportunity to ensure that official statistics are
not only independent, but seen to be independent. Public
confidence is the yardstick by which the success of the
proposed legislation will ultimately be measured.”
|
