Greater efforts needed to restore public confidence in national statistics says Solihull MP

6.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Sat 12th Nov 2005

During the Treasury Select Sub-committee this week, Liberal Democrat Members of Parliament Lorely Burt and Susan Kramer, questioned Karen Dunnell, the National Statistician, on issues surrounding public confidence in ONS statistics.

The ONS' latest survey on public confidence in official statistics for 2005 show that only 17% of respondents believe that official figures are produced without political interference, and that only 14% believe that Government uses official figures honestly.

Commenting after the hearing, Lorely Burt MP for Solihull said: "It is unacceptable that there is such a lack of public confidence in official statistics. This must be urgently tackled by the National Statistician.

"The ONS' efforts to increase public trust will not be helped by the National Statisticians' announcement that PFI projects will not be fully incorporated into the public debt figures until at least next summer."

Susan Kramer MP for Richmond Park added: "The first step must be to provide a legislative framework for the independence of the ONS. We welcome the ONS' willingness to look again at the pre-release of statistics to Government ministers to

limit the ability of Government departments to spin figures."

Responding to the National Statistician's comments on the redefinition by the Chancellor of the economic cycle earlier this year, Mrs Kramer added:

"The Liberal Democrats have been calling for greater transparency in fiscal rules for a number of years so the National Statistician's admission that there is no inherent reason why the ONS should not be the determinant of the cycle is very welcome."