The Cabinet Office may have to be stripped of responsibility for overseeing official statistics because of a decline in their quality, a senior Conservative MP has said.
An independent review of the UK's economic statistics is currently being carried out by Sir Charlie Bean, the former deputy governor of the Bank of England.
His interim report, published late last year, said the UK faced "increasing difficulty" in properly measuring output and productivity "in a modern, dynamic and increasingly technological economy".
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It also called for a "cultural shift" at the Office for National Statistics, which produces most of the UK's statistics, urging the body to get better at helping organisations and individuals "answer questions about the economy". And Bean said departments needed to overcome a "reluctance" to share their own data with the ONS.
The Cabinet Office currently has lead government responsibility for official statistics, while the arm's length UK Statistics Authority was set up in 2008 to provide independent scrutiny, beyond the reach of Treasury ministers, of both the work of the ONS and the overall quality of official statistics.
But Andrew Tyrie, the chair of the Treasury select committee, has written to Bean suggesting a wide-ranging shake-up of the UK's stats regime, pointing to the "inherent tension" between UKSA's dual role of overseeing the production of stats while also acting as a regulator.
In his letter, Tyrie argues that the UKSA has "fallen short" in its duties, adding: "The UK Statistics Authority has been marking its own homework since its inception. Therefore, there is a strong case for a small new autonomous body, with responsibility for the monitoring and assessment of official statistics, but no role for their production.
"It should have at its disposal a high level committee of experts whose duty will be to offer advice on best practice from both the public and private sector, including end-users."
Tyrie argued that a "deterioration in the quality of economic statistics" had taken place "under the nominal responsibility of the Cabinet Office, a department with no skin in the game", and said a change in departmental responsibility may be needed to improve governance.
He added: "Given the Cabinet Office's failure to step in while the UK Statistics Authority appeared to have been asleep at the wheel, serious consideration should be given to whether the Treasury should now assume lead government responsibility for official statistics, rather than the Cabinet Office."
The Treasury committee chair also suggested a new "double lock" for the appointment and dismissal of the chair of the UK statistics authority.
Bean's final report is expected in time for next month's Budget.