Office For National Statistics - Independence

Independence

Gordon Brown, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced on 28 November 2005, that the government intended to publish plans in early 2006 to legislate to render the ONS and the statistics it generates independent of government on a model based on the independence of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England. This was originally a 1997 Labour manifesto commitment and was also the policy of the Liberal Democrat and Conservative parties. Such independence was also sought by the Royal Statistical Society and the Statistics Commission. The National Statistician would be directly accountable to Parliament through a more widely-constituted independent governing Statistics Board. The ONS would be a non-ministerial government department so that the staff, including the Director, would remain as civil servants but without being under direct ministerial control. The National Statistician, Dame Karen Dunnell, stated that legislation would help improve public trust in official statistics although the ONS already acts independently according to its own published guidelines, the National Statistics Code of Practice, which sets out the key principles and standards that official statisticians, including those in other parts of the government statistical service, are expected to follow and uphold.

The details of the plans for independence were considered in Parliament during the 2006/2007 session and resulted in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. In July 2007, Sir Michael Scholar was nominated by the government to be the three day-a-week non-executive chairman of the Statistics Board which, to re-establish faith in the integrity of government statistics, will take on statutory responsibility for oversight of UK statistics in April 2008 and oversee the Office for National Statistics. It will also have a duty to assess all UK government statistics. Following Gordon Brown's announcement of new constitutional arrangements for public appointments, Sir Michael also became, on 18 July, the first such nominee to appear before the House of Commons Treasury Committee and to have his nomination subject to confirmation by the House. On 7 February 2008, following the first meeting of the shadow board, it was announced that it will be known as the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA).

The non-executive chairman is Mr Andrew Dilnot CBE. Six other non-executive members were appointed in open competition: Professor Sir Adrian Smith FRS, deputy chairman responsible for governance of the Office for National Statistics, Professor David Rhind CBE FRS FBA, deputy chairman with responsibility for oversight of the UK official statistics system, Dr Colette Bowe, Mr Partha Dasgupta, Dame Moira Gibb CBE, Dr David Levy. The executive members are Jil Matheson (National Statistician), Richard Alldritt (Head of Assessment) and Glen Watson (Director General, Office for National Statistics).