Press release

Preferred candidate selected for chair of the UK Statistics Authority

Andrew Dilnot CBE has been selected as the government's preferred candidate asappointment as the new Chair of the UK Statistics Authority.

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

1 December 2011

Following an open recruitment exercise, Andrew Dilnot CBE, currently Principal of St Hugh’s College Oxford, has been selected as the government’s preferred candidate for appointment as the new Chair of the UK Statistics Authority. The Minister for the Cabinet Office has invited the Public Administration Select Committee to hold a pre-appointment hearing, which will take place on 6 December.

An Approval Motion will then take place on 12 December. Parliament will vote on the appointment of the preferred candidate. They will consider the conclusions of the committee in reaching their decision.

Notes for editors

The UK Statistics Authority was established on 1 April 2008 by the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007, with a statutory objective to promote and safeguard:

  • the production and publication of official statistics that serve the public good; and
  • the quality and comprehensiveness of, and good practice in relation to, official statistics across the UK.

The Chair of the Authority is a Crown appointment, as set out in the Act. Sir Michael Scholar KCB, the first Chair of the Authority, will retire at the end of his term.

Pre-appointment scrutiny hearings enable select committees to take evidence from the Government’s preferred candidate for certain key public appointments prior to the final appointment decision. Hearings are in public and the select committee will publish a report setting out their views on the candidate’s suitability for the post.

Published 1 December 2011