ONS independence on RPI called into question
The Office for National Statistics faced awkward questions from pension trustees at a public meeting on changes to the retail price index, according to attendees.
The meeting was held as part of the consultation on changing the RPI formula to align it with the consumer price index. Representatives from the pensions, statistics, and banking professions were in attendance.
Mike Post, a former British Airways trustee, who resigned in protest at the scheme’s change from RPI to CPI linkage, said: “The mood in the meeting was definitely one of dissatisfaction. It was pretty clear that a lot of people are angry about this, actually from across industries.
They’re treating it as a foregone conclusion not a consultation
“The ONS called it a meeting on ‘improving’ RPI, and it’s got nothing to do with improving it, it’s about reducing it. And as for the consultation itself, it’s an outrage that it’s just 54 days for something so important. They’re treating it as a foregone conclusion not a consultation.”
The President of the Royal Statistical Society, Valerie Isham, has also criticised the length of the consultation period.
Others who expressed strong criticism of the ONS included bankers and the head of structural economic statistics at the Deutsche Bundesbank, Jens Mehrhoff, attendees said.
A statistician, who did not wish to be named, reported that the ONS officials seemed to be taken by surprise by the strength of feeling, and seemed to have little answer in response to some of the mathematical criticism.
Shaun Richards, an independent economist who was in attendance, challenged the ONS’s independence. “The representatives of the ONS kept repeating that they were independent of government, so much so that when I quoted from Queen Gertrude in the play Hamlet I got applause and quite a few ‘hear, hears’ from members of the audience,” he said.
Richards referred to the meeting as “very one-sided”, listing only one member from the bank of Nova Scotia who showed brief support for the ONS position.
Sir Tony Atkinson, an independent chairman drafted in by the ONS, described the meeting as “constructive but contrary”. At the time of printing, no one from the ONS had responded to requests for comment. A second open meeting will be held by the ONS in Edinburgh on November 7.