Speeches by Yang.

“I am going to ask a bit about the Labour Force Survey and the economic reviews that have happened over the last few decades. There have been a series of external expert reviews of economic statistics at the ONS for several decades now. For example, a theme that I saw emerging in the Barker review from the early 2010s i…”

“We will have to move on in terms of time, but just to put on the record that if I had been a statistician working for the ONS, I would still remain a bit confused as to what the original plan was for this TLFS, which of course would impact the execution of it.”

“So the original intention was to have the shorter, more compact survey, and then it lost its way through the process?”

“Sir Robert, did you want to add anything?”

“I would like to turn back to the Transformed Labour Force Survey, which was first announced in 2022 to be—among other things—a way of responding to the drop-off rate in response that you were seeing during the pandemic. This survey was meant to be launched by early 2024; we now know that that has been put back by three…”

“Just to return to a previous topic, I wanted to get something straight about the design of the TLFS. In the answers that you gave to my questions earlier as a panel, you described that the original intent of it was not necessarily to produce a shorter survey. In its concluding remarks, the Methodological Assurance Revi…”

“So the initial design of the TLFS was not that it was meant to be shorter than the LFS. That is helpful to know.”

“Can I just clarify? To replay the account that you just made, am I right in thinking that in 2022, the TLFS was being prepared and the initial intention was to start with a short survey that was easier for people to answer. But as the months rolled on, more of your end users—the bank and so on—asked for extra questions…”

“Does that suggest that you believe that the ONS has too many priorities right now and it cannot sufficiently do them all well with the resource it has?”

“For me, this process also seems to outline a pattern, which I will describe and you can tell me if you agree. For example, in the early 2010s, the Bank of England at the time was unhappy with flow of funds data. Since it is in public, there is pressure put on the ONS to improve and there are these reviews by external e…”

“My hon. Friend talks eloquently about the need for better regulation. We have just heard that he is a fan of Banbury United and that my hon. Friend the Member for Dartford (Jim Dickson) is a fan of Crystal Palace. Does that not show that there is complete agreement across the football pyramid that there needs to be bet…”

“The approach of the Conservative party here and in the Lords has been to delay this Bill and any progress made on regulation for far too many months, during which my club has struggled to go on without any independent regulation. I would like to see some reflection from Conservative Front Benchers about what that means…”

“My hon. Friend makes a very good point. I am very surprised to see Conservative Front Benchers whipping their colleagues to oppose a Bill that they had previously introduced in part and supported. We had built a cross-society consensus because of the work of Dame Tracey and many others like her, and we should respect t…”

“Let me begin by drawing the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I rise to speak today with a sense of relief, because Reading football club has finally been sold. I was one of thousands in the stadium in my constituency during the May bank holiday weekend when we heard that th…”

“As my hon. Friend the Member for Loughborough (Dr Sandher) mentioned, there were seven different sets of fiscal rules under the previous Government. The shadow Chancellor, the right hon. Member for Central Devon (Sir Mel Stride), has announced that he has reflected on the mistakes made by the Truss Government and I am …”

“I hear the most thought-provoking questions from my youngest constituents. On a recent visit to an infant school, a six-year-old asked me what I thought the Government’s most important achievements might be. Today, I would like to tell her that our two local authorities, Wokingham and Reading borough councils, which pr…”

“Mrs Rourke, first can I say that I very much admire your stepping into the breach, because it is a tremendously significant responsibility and task that you are taking on right now? I want to return to Mr Carling’s questions about when people became aware of issues and the testimony of the former National Statistician,…”

“Are you saying that there was the ability for your senior civil servants to make representations and that that would be heard but not necessarily acted on at the senior level, and that is what you are trying to change?”

“In your experience of the ONS’s work, do you feel that culture of challenge once existed and has deteriorated over time or that you are building it up from scratch now?”

“I always appreciate the right hon. Gentleman’s remarks in the Treasury Committee and in the Chamber as an extremely fair-minded colleague. I appreciated his remarks in yesterday’s statement and the admission that the previous Government’s handling of our recovery from the pandemic was not what it should have been. Howe…”