Commentary on Sections and Schedules Part 1: the Statistics Board Section 27 Reports
116.This section requires certain reports to be laid before Parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, or the Northern Ireland Assembly, and it also allows the Board to lay further reports as necessary.
117.This section would enable the Board, if it thought it appropriate, to lay reports which are wholly on devolved matters only before the relevant devolved legislature.
118.Subsection (1) imposes a duty on the Board to produce a report after the end of each financial year. This will include details of what it has done during the year and what it has found as a result of those activities. The Board must also provide information about what it intends to do during the following financial year.
119.Subsection (2) states that a report under subsection (1) must be laid before Parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly.
120.Subsection (3) allows the Board at any time to produce a report about any other matter relating to the exercise of its functions. Subsection (4) notes that any report produced under subsection (3) must be laid before at least one or more of Parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly.
121.Under subsection (5), the Board must publish any report that it makes under this section.