Examination of Witnesses (Questions 117-119)
PROFESSOR DAVID
RHIND, SIR
DEREK WANLESS
AND MR
RICHARD ALLDRITT
7 JUNE 2006
Q117 Chairman: Could I welcome Professor
Rhind and his colleagues back to the Sub-Committee. Could you
introduce yourselves formally, please.
Professor Rhind: Thank you, Chairman.
I am David Rhind, the Chairman of the Statistics Commission. On
my left is Sir Derek Wanless, the Deputy Chair, and on my right
Richard Alldritt, the Chief Executive of the Statistics Commission.
Q118 Chairman: Thank you very much
and thank you for coming to assist us. David Rhind, Simon Briscoe
told us that the proposals looked "shambolic" and were
possibly a cover for removing too energetic a Statistics Commission.
Do you share that view?
Professor Rhind: The Statistics
Commission, as we have said to you earlier, Chairman, has always
sought to make points without worrying too much about whether
we became terribly popular. I think Simon Briscoe's view is a
somewhat colourful view of the circumstances. In 2004 we made
a report on the case for legislation and we proposed three models
that we thought could work. Our favoured model actually involved
our own abolition and replacement by a statutory commission, so
I do not think we feel very precious about this. As to the reasons
for our removal, I think that is a matter for newspapers to speculate
on.
Q119 Chairman: But the solution the
Government have come up with is not your solution. Is it better
than having no solution?
Professor Rhind: The model they
have come up with is a variant on our third choice model, which
we believe could be made to work. I think it would be fair to
say that the Commission still believes that an independent scrutiny
role would be cleaner and more easily believed to be independent
than the model that the Treasury has come up with. That said,
we think the model can be made to work, providing the very real
tensions that are involved in this are recognised and the structure
is set up in the right way.
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