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Appointment of new deputy chair of the UK Statistics Authority

11 November 2008
CAB/106/08

Liam Byrne, Minister for the Cabinet Office, today announced the appointment of Professor Sir Roger Jowell as the new deputy chair of the UK Statistics Authority with responsibility for the official statistics system.

Liam Byrne said:

“I am pleased to announce the appointment of Sir Roger Jowell as the new deputy chair of the UK Statistics authority. Sir Roger has an international reputation in social statistics and survey measurement and, brings the highest level of professional expertise to the UK Statistics Authority.

“The UK Statistics Authority performs a vital function ensuring the high quality of official statistics and providing information that government, Parliament and the public can trust.

“Commanding the respect of statisticians and statistical users across the UK, this appointment will further strengthen the UK Statistics Authority in its important work raising levels of public trust in official statistics.”

Sir Roger said today:

“I am honoured to be appointed and greatly looking forward to working with the rest of the board in trying to protect and bolster the reputation and independence of official statistics”.

The UK Statistics Authority is charged with delivering the Government's goal of greater independence for statistics: reinforcing the quality and integrity of statistics in government, supporting the Government's agenda for better public services and contributing to long-term stability in the UK economy.

Notes to editors

1. The post of Deputy Chair (Statistical System) is one of two Authority Deputy Chair posts. The post of Deputy Chair (Office for National Statistics [External website]) is held by Lord Rowe-Beddoe of Gilgetty.
2. Professor Sir Roger Jowell succeeds Professor Adrian Smith who stepped down from the Authority on 31 August 2008 on his appointment as Director General, Science & Research at the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills.
3. Sir Roger was appointed by Liam Byrne, Minster for the Cabinet Office following the recommendation of a selection panel, comprising Robin Fellgett (Director, Economic and Domestic Affairs Secretariat, Cabinet Office), Sir Michael Scholar (Chair of the UK Statistics Authority), and Olivia Grant, the independent assessor from the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments. The appointment followed the Commissioner's Code of Practice.
4. Professor Sir Roger Jowell CBE is a British social statistician and academic. He was born in South Africa in 1942. In 1969 he co-founded Social and Community Planning Research (SCPR), now the National Centre for Social Research. In 2001 he was awarded the CBE for services to social science and in 2008 he was knighted for services to social sciences.
5. Professor Jowell is currently a Research Professor at City University, London, where he is the Founder Director of its Centre for Comparative Social Surveys. In 2005 he and his team won the Descartes Prize “for excellence in collaborative scientific research” – the first social scientists to win this coveted award. He is an elected member of the International Statistical Institute, an Academician of the Academy for Social Sciences and is a recent Vice-President of the Royal Statistical Society
6. The other non-executive members of the UK Statistics Authority board are: Partha Dasgupta, Moira Gibb CBE, Sir Alan Langlands FRSE, Professor Stephen Nickell CBE FBA, Professor David Rhind CBE FRS FBA, Lord Rowe-Beddoe, and Sir Michael Scholar.
7. The UK Statistics Authority was established by the Statistics and Registration Services Act (2007). It has a statutory objective to promote and safeguard the production and publication of official statistics that serve the public good and to promote good practice in relation to official statistics across the UK. The Authority will deliver this through its three main statutory functions, namely:
   • a duty to monitor, and report publicly, on areas of concern about the quality, good practice, and comprehensiveness of all official statistics across Government and its arms-length bodies;
   • a duty to draw up a code of practice to set independent professional standards; to independently assess against those standards all existing National Statistics; and to similarly assess any additional official statistics submitted for assessment by the person responsible; and
   • replacing Ministers as the top governance layer for what is at present the Office for National Statistics (ONS), as the body to whom the National Statistician (as head of the ONS) will report directly.

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