§ Mr. Redmondasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement about the recommendations on statistical form filling made in Chapter 15 of the Report of the Bolton Committee on Small Firms.
§ Mr. RidleyIn the debate on the Address on 3rd November last, my right hon. Friend said that the Government accepted the philosophy underlying the Bolton Committee's proposals about form filling. Study has now shown that while it is not possible to accept them all in the precise way they were framed, the objectives of most of them should and can be met.
The committee strongly commended the development of a central register of businesses. We recognise that such a register could be of great value in removing unnecessary duplication in statistical inquiries; it should lessen the burden of form filling by making possible the more intensive use of sampling techniques and the exemption to an increased extent of smaller firms from inquiries as the committee recommended. A central register could lead to improvements in the coverage and consistency of statistical series and go a long way towards providing comprehensive information about enterprises, as recommended by the committee. The Business Statistics Office is actively exploring the possibility of developing a central register of businesses. My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister answered a Question from my hon. Friend on 14th March about the procedures to be followed for strengthening the scrutiny of statistical surveys, which was recommended by the committee.
The report comments on the use of statutory powers for collecting statistics. Wherever possible the Government Statistical Service seeks voluntary co-operation of businesses in supplying information but it has been asked to formulate more explicit criteria for the use of statutory collecting powers and all statutory inquiries will be reviewed to see if they meet these criteria. It will review all statistical forms to ensure that statutory and non-statutory forms are clearly distinguished.
The committee considered the question of the passage of information between different Departments. It is in 98W general accepted that maximum use should be made of information from which business statistics can be derived and that to this end there should be close co-operation between statisticians and administration branches of Government, both in making good use of information and in adapting administrative arrangements to improve its value to the Government generally. Substantially there is a free flow of aggregated statistics between Departments of Government. Where barriers exist they are against the free passage of information about individual businesses or people—or about small groups of businesses or people. The availability of Inland Revenue information must continue to be subject to the overriding requirements of confidentiality.
Several of the committee's recommendations are concerned with the cost of surveys. The Government accept the principle that in reaching a decision about whether to conduct a survey some assessment must be made of the burden it will impose on respondents. Further, it is proposed to extend to other inquiries the practice of making man-hour estimates which has been pioneered in some recent statistical surveys wherever good results without undue costs seem possible.—[Vol. 825, c. 189; Vol. 833, c. 87–8.]