Examination of Witnesses (Questions 200-203)
MS KAREN
DUNNELL, MR
DENNIS ROBERTS
AND MR
MIKE HUGHES
7 JUNE 2006
Q200 Chairman: The board appointments
will be made by the minister?
Mr Roberts: Indeed. At the top
level there is always a need for a minister to deal with Parliament
about the legislation under which any organisation works. What
is then intended, for the non-ministerial department in the consultation
document, is that ministers would appoint the chair of the governing
board and the chief executive, ie the chief statistician or the
national statistician. The minister would appoint those two persons.
Q201 Chairman: But the perception
will still be, therefore, that you are reporting, or accountable,
or funded by the Treasury. I am asking Karen Dunnell this question.
Why should you not, as others have argued, be accountable now
to a more independent body like the Cabinet Office, for example?
Is there not an issue that you are going to be accountable to
the very body that funds you?
Ms Dunnell: I think, at the end
of the day, we have to accept that national statistics, in whatever
form and certainly in the form that is proposed in the consultation
document, will have to be funded, and eventually, of course, funded
by the Treasury. We do not want to get into a situation where
we are asked to kind of recoup the cost of the system. So, at
the end of the day, that is where the money comes from. I think
there have been discussions about whether the Cabinet Office is
more appropriate. I myself do not think it matters particularly.
What really matters is the setting up of this board and making
that a really effective independent body, because I think that
we will in a sense, as the office and the statistical system,
be seen to be reporting to that board and, through that board,
to yourselves in Parliament, and I think that is what we have
to get to happen. Eventually, of course, the money is going to
come from the Treasury.
Q202 Chairman: You see the point
I am making. The criticism, presumably, will be what is the difference
between the present system? The ONS appointed and funded by the
Treasury; the new board appointed and funded by the Treasury?
Ms Dunnell: Yes, except that the
board will be appointed in the usual publicly acceptable way and
it will have quite a wide range, I expect, of non-executive members
on it, and I know from discussions that this is the Chancellor's
opportunity that he has taken now to make a big step towards independence,
and I am sure that he will find the people, chose the people in
the right way, but it is up to all of us, either on the board
or in the statistical system, to emphasise all the time the independence
of what we do.
Q203 Chairman: Thank you very much.
Ms Dunnell: Thank you.
Chairman: We will pursue that with the
Minister next week. Thank you for your attendance today.
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