Speeches by Carling.

“If I can just finish this line of questioning by asking Mrs Rourke, were you in post at the time, around September to October 2023?”

“What was your perspective on the extent to which this issue of the declining response rates was being picked up by the senior leadership team and that it was being prioritised and actioned?”

“This goes back to staffing issues. Sir Robert, just now you were using the phrase, “In an ideal world we would have done X, Y, Z in this process.” I cannot help but feel that a lot of these things are quite fundamental and basic, and it is not so much in an ideal world we should be doing it, it is a serious failure tha…”

“Mine will not take long.”

“Mrs Rourke, I have a few questions for you around the structure of the organisation. To lay out our understanding at the moment: the National Statistician has been supported by three deputy national statisticians previously, and you are currently acting in the national statistician role. The economic statistics post ha…”

“About nine months, okay, and when did the previous incumbent step down from that role? I think it was Alison Pritchard. Again, rough is fine.”

“At what point in 2024?”

“The gap was what, about three months?”

“If you were going to appoint an interim, three months seems like quite a big gap?”

“That is a fair point.”

“The person holding the role, Alison Pritchard, was on leave of absence, so someone covered it and she then stepped down. Is that the sequence here?”

“Okay, I do not think that was clear to us but it does clarify why that person is still on the website. Okay, that helps. You also had a second permanent secretary between 2020 and 2023, which we covered briefly there, who in some places has been described as the head of economic statistics. Why did ONS feel it necessar…”

“That would be helpful, actually. And equally in those inquiries, if we could understand why it was decided not to backfill Ms Beckett’s role, that would be helpful. I appreciate we cannot answer now given this is before anyone here’s time, but if we can get that in writing it would be very helpful.”

“Finally, roughly what proportion of the ONS’s senior civil servants are statisticians by background?”

“Yes, of course.”

“I thank the hon. Member for that intervention. I am very pleased that other hon. Members in the House are aware of that issue, which is something I am trying to do some work on separately. It is certainly relevant to what I am discussing. To give the House a little more context on that, through the act of disfellowship…”

“I begin by once again welcoming the Bill. It will deliver so much for my constituents by protecting people from crime and enabling tough action on antisocial behaviour, including in areas that have too long been labelled “low level” and ignored, such as the illegal off-road bikes that constituents so often raise with m…”

“Will the Minister give way?”

“I thank the Home Secretary for the robust measures she has laid out. Can she reaffirm the commitment that the Government made in January that the IICSA recommendations relevant to the Home Office will be implemented in full?”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Dame Siobhain. I thank my hon. Friends the Members for Tamworth (Sarah Edwards) and for Morecambe and Lunesdale (Lizzi Collinge) and the hon. Member for Henley and Thame (Freddie van Mierlo), who secured this debate. It has been worth it for all the puns, if nothing else.…”