74/00
7 June 2000
STATISTICS COMMISSION MEMBERS APPOINTED
The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced today the appointment of the seven members to the new Statistics Commission - the independent, non-executive body which will provide a check on the integrity and independence of National Statistics. The announcement of the appointment of Sir John Kingman, a former Royal Statistical Society President, as Chairman of the Statistics Commission was made on 29 March.
The new appointees are:
Miss Colette Bowe; Sir Kenneth Calman; Ms Patricia Hodgson; Prof. David Rhind; Mrs Janet Trewsdale; Mr Derek Wanless; and Mr Martin Weale.
The appointments will be for three years but may be renewed, each appointment requires a commitment of 20 days a year.
Ms Gill Eastabrook has been appointed as full-time Chief Executive of the Statistics Commission.
Commenting, the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Melanie Johnson said:
"I warmly welcome the appointment of the members of the Statistics Commission. The new members' impressive talent and breadth of experience should make for a balanced and distinguished Commission."
All the members have been appointed following an open competition and selection process, in accordance with the Code of Practice of the Commissioner for Public Appointments - the 'Nolan' procedures.
NOTES FOR EDITORS
Colette Bowe is Head of Western Pooled Funds at Fleming Asset Management. Previously she was Chief Executive of the Personal Investment Authority. She is currently a member of the Council of Queen Mary and Westfield College, London and she has a PhD in Economics.
Sir Kenneth Calman is currently Vice Chancellor and Warden of the University of Durham. Previous posts include Chief Medical Officer for Scotland and for England. He has also been Dean of Postgraduate Medicine in the West of Scotland and Professor of Oncology. He is Fellow of numerous medical Royal colleges and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Patricia Hodgson is currently Director of Public Policy at the BBC. Previously she was a television producer and then Secretary of the BBC. She has held a number of public appointments; in particular, she was a Member of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission between 1993 and 1999. Ms Hodgson continues to be an active member of the Advisory Board at the Judge Institute.
David Rhind is currently Vice Chancellor and Principal of City University, London and was previously Director General of Ordnance Survey. He is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and of the Royal Geographical Society. He has been a member of a wide range of boards and councils and remains a member of the Economic and Social Research Council and Chairman for the National Geospatial Data Framework Board.
Janet Trewsdale has been a Senior Lecturer at Queen's University, Belfast since 1972. Previously she was a Lecturer at the University of Kent at Canterbury and Trent Polytechnic in Nottingham. She is currently Chairman of the Northern Ireland Economic Council and is Chairman and a Director of the Northern Ireland Economic Development Office. She is a Fellow and a past Vice-President of the Royal Statistical Society.
Derek Wanless is currently a Director of Northern Rock and an advisory board member of GSC Partners Europe. He was Group Chief Executive of National Westminster Bank between 1992 and 1999. He is President of the Chartered Institute of Bankers. He is Chairman of the National Forum for Management Education and Development and the National Advisory Council for Education and Training Targets and a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society. Mr Wanless is also a member of the Competitiveness Council and Chairman of the Adult Financial Literacy Advisory Group.
Martin Weale is currently Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. Before this he was an Economics Lecturer and Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge. He is a former Houblon-Norman Fellow of the Bank of England. Between 1995 and 1997 he was a member HM Treasury's Panel of Independent Forecasters and is chairman of the ONS Academic Panel. He was closely involved in the Review of the Average Earnings Index commissioned by the Chancellor of the Exchequer last year. He is Honorary Treasurer and a Director of the Alzheimer's Research Trust.
All of the above have not carried out any political activity in the last five years and hold no other government appointments, other than those mentioned above. An annual remuneration of £5,000 will be paid to each member.
Besides Sir John Kingman, who acted as chairman, the Selection Panel who made recommendations for the appointments to the Chancellor comprised:
- Professor Adrian Smith (Principal of Queen Mary and Westfield College and former President of the Royal Statistical Society);
- Mrs Gwen Batchelor (Finance Director of Abbey National plc Treasury Services and Non-executive Director of the ONS);
- Sir Andrew Turnbull (Permanent Secretary to the Treasury).
The Selection Panel's recommendations were unanimous and the Chancellor accepted all of them.
Gill Eastabrook, the Chief Executive, has been Head of the Workforce Statistics Branch of the Department of Health since 1995. Previously she held statistical posts in the Department of Health's Public Expenditure Survey Team, Community Health and Related Services and in the Regional Liaison Division.
The Statistics Commission is a key element of the Government's new arrangement for official statistics, the biggest overhaul for thirty years. The new arrangements are set out in the White Paper, Building Trust in Statistics (CM4412) and in more detail in the Framework for National Statistics (published today - see HMT PN 73/00).