LETTERS: Social trends in statistics

From the Earl Russell Sir: Congratulations on the article by Muriel Nissel ("What they didn't want you to know", 26 January) on what has been happening to government statistics. In 1992, the Liberal Democrats made it their policy to transfer responsibility for official statistics to an independent Statistical Commission, as proposed by the Royal Statistical Society and as done in many other countries.

This is part of our commitment to reducing the power of the executive. It would also free the statistics and the Government from suspicion which is sometimes (but not always) justified. Will any other party join us in this commitment?

Yours faithfully, RUSSELL House of Lords London, SW1

The writer is Liberal Democrat Social Security spokesman.