LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Statistics Authority said on Friday that Ian Diamond, the country’s head statistician, had resigned from his position due to ongoing health issues.
It said Emma Rourke, deputy national statistician for health, population and methods, will act in his place, pending longer term arrangements being put in place.
“Unfortunately, I have made the decision that, due to ongoing health issues, I am unable to give the commitment to the role of national statistician that I would like to and feel that it is the right time for somebody else to pick up the baton,” Diamond said in a statement.
Diamond’s resignation comes at a difficult time for the Office for National Statistics, which has been criticised for the quality of its labour market statistics that provide critical information for government and Bank of England policymakers.
Last month Britain’s statistics regulator said other countries’ statistics offices were not having the same scale of problem and told the ONS to focus its limited resources on the most important numbers.
The government has also ordered an inquiry into problems at the ONS.
(Reporting by William James, writing by Sam Tabahriti, editing by Andy Bruce and Kate Holton)
