Lord True has today confirmed Sir Robert Chote as the government’s preferred candidate for the role of UK Statistics Authority Chair. Sir Robert is a former head of the Office for Budget Responsibility and the Institute for Fiscal Studies and is currently serving part-time as the first chair of the Northern Ireland Fiscal Council, an independent body created in 2021 to bring greater transparency and independent scrutiny to NI’s public finances. He also chairs the external advisory group of the Parliamentary Budget Office in the Republic of Ireland. Sir Robert studied economics at Queens’ Colle…