Christine Jardine
Main Page: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Christine Jardine (Edinburgh West) (LD)
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. On 27 April, I raised the issue of the Prime Minister’s comments about increased employment since the pandemic. After that, I wrote to the UK Statistics Authority about the issue. In its reply on 11 May, the authority’s interim chair said that the Prime Minister needed to be clearer about employment statistics, and that he was running the risk of
“a misleading impression of trends in the labour market”
being given. The UK Statistics Authority has also contacted the 10 Downing Street briefing team about this matter on numerous occasions in the past few months, but the Prime Minister has continued to reiterate the claim. May I ask your advice, Mr Speaker, on what a Minister should do if they use statistics in a way that they then find could inadvertently mislead the House, and what action is open to the House to ensure that that advice is followed?
Mr Speaker
I thank the hon. Lady for giving me notice of her point of order, which will have been heard by those on the Government Front Bench. As Madam Deputy Speaker said on 27 April,
“it is important for information given to the House to be accurate…if necessary, the matter will be addressed appropriately and action taken to correct the record”.—[Official Report, 27 April 2022; Vol. 712, c. 800.]
If the hon. Lady continues to be dissatisfied, the Table Office can advise her on ways in which to take the matter further.