Statistics and Registration Service Bill

We have never disputed that. The issue is who should be the arbiter of the period of advance notice, who should determine the rules under which data are pre-released and how extensive the dissemination of those data should be. The Exchequer Secretary can um and ah as much as she likes from the Government Front Bench, but she will know that what we do in this country is wildly out of line with what is done in other developed economies. If that is not because the Government want to be able to manage the release of information in a way that would have been called spin in the old days, she needs to come forward with a substantive explanation of why the Government think that pre-release is qualitatively different from all the other aspects of control of statistics. The truth, as she very well knows, is that certain Departments—ironically, more so those concerned with social statistics than economic statistics—are determined to keep control over the release of what is all too often bad news, even when it is dressed up as good news, and to have access to at least one full news cycle ahead of release, in order to soften up the media and the public for the formal release and set the pristine objective data in a subjective context. In conclusion, I can do no better than quote Lord Moser from the debate in the other place. He said:"““we now have a Bill that is extremely helpful and could historically lead to a new statistical system, except that it misses out on one particular. Unfortunately, that particular—pre-release—is probably the most known about in the statistical community and is in some ways indicative of the Government’s ultimate attitude to the whole subject of public trust.””" I concur with Lord Moser, as he continued:"““I still hope that it is not too late for the Government to think again on the only aspect that keeps this from being a really good Bill and makes it flawed””.—[Official Report, House of Lords, 9 July 2007; Vol. 693, c. 1255.]" I hope indeed that it is not too late.