Central Statistical Office, United Kingdom
In 1992, McLennan was appointed Director of the Central Statistical Office (CSO) and head of the Government Statistical Services of the United Kingdom. He was the first person from outside the UK to be appointed to that post.
During his tenure, he proposed the merger of the OPCS and the CSO in August 1994, which was subsequently announced by Prime Minister John Major in September 1995 following a consultation period and took place on 1 April 1996 when the Office for National Statistics was launched. He persuaded the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Norman Lamont, to reduce ministerial access to economic statistics in advance of publication and to permit statistics to be released independently of ministers. He produced the Official Statistics Code of Practice, first published in April 1995, which set good practice and principles for statisticians producing official statistics with the aim of promoting high standards and maintaining public confidence in official statistics. He led the CSO through its early years as a 'Next Steps Agency' with demanding and quantified targets for the accuracy of statistics.
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Famous quotes containing the words central, united and/or kingdom:
“Et in Arcadia ego.
[I too am in Arcadia.]”
—Anonymous, Anonymous.
Tomb inscription, appearing in classical paintings by Guercino and Poussin, among others. The words probably mean that even the most ideal earthly lives are mortal. Arcadia, a mountainous region in the central Peloponnese, Greece, was the rustic abode of Pan, depicted in literature and art as a land of innocence and ease, and was the title of Sir Philip Sidney’s pastoral romance (1590)
“What makes the United States government, on the whole, more tolerable—I mean for us lucky white men—is the fact that there is so much less of government with us.... But in Canada you are reminded of the government every day. It parades itself before you. It is not content to be the servant, but will be the master; and every day it goes out to the Plains of Abraham or to the Champs de Mars and exhibits itself and toots.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.”
—Bible: New Testament, Mark 10:14.
Jesus.