(1994). A national lottery in the UK. Journal of Applied Statistics: Vol. 21, No. 6, pp. 607-622.

On December 6th, 1989, Sir Jack Hibbert opened a discussion meeting at the Royal Statistical Society (RSS) on Public Confidence in the Integrity and Validity of Official Statistics. Several speakers suggested a UK National Statistical Commission could alleviate some of the perceived problems with official statistics. An RSS Working Party (whose membership was announced at the meeting) examined, inter alia, the merits of such a Commission and one of its recommendations in its July 1990 report was that the UK should set up a National Statistical Commission. As a basis for a fuller discussion of the Working Party's recommendation for a UK National Statistical Commission, this short paper outlines the role, construction and operation of similar Commissions in various countries, putting forward a possible model for such a Commission in the UK.