Statistics and Registration Service Bill

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 that, I warmly welcome the establishment of the hub. There are quite a lot of specific things to sort out in its creation, but I am reassured by the Minister’s commitment that the board will be fully involved in that task. I am talking purely about the hub and not about pre-release arrangements.