What were those problems? Well, as a bit of background, the position of the chief statistician and, in particular, the status of official statistics have been carefully constitutionally protected for very good reason for a very long time. When a survey is done, it has the potential to damage the Government of the day's interests. It may turn up results about employment or the price of things that might favour one side or the other of politics. It might gather data or information that would be key to some people's privacy. 