Pension figured out

Nobody can challenge the expert knowledge behind Sir John Kingman's recent criticism of the Office of National Statistics in his role as head of the Statistics Commission.

Attacking flaws in its figures for private contributions to pension funds, he told the Financial Times : "We are talking about large sums of money, not just the odd fiver gone missing. We are all worried about our pensions, about how we are going to survive in our old age."

Readers may recall that Sir John took the precaution of accepting a 98.4 per cent pay rise, taking his salary to £252,000, in his last year as vice-chancellor of the University of Bristol, including a large number of fivers towards his future pension.