CLEAN SWEEP AT STATISTICS COMMISSION

Sir John Kingman, Chairman of the Statistics Commission will not be seeking to extend his contract at the end of his three-year tenure on 30 April. Gill Eastabrook, the chief executive, has also announced her intention to leave at the end of her term of office in the summer. The contracts for the other seven commission members are also due for renewal in May.

Ian Maclean commented to the Financial Times "Scarcely can there have been a more inactive head of a body that should have been blazing trails. The Commission had cried out for a leader and barely got a follower."