Leonard Warren Cook

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

CRSNZ (born 13 April 1949) is a professional statistician who was Government Statistician of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

from 1992 to 2000, and National Statistician and Director of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Office for National Statistics The Office for National Statistics (ONS; cy, Swyddfa Ystadegau Gwladol) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the UK Parliament. Overview The ONS is responsible for th ...

, and Registrar General for England and Wales from 2000 to 2005. He served as Families Commissioner in New Zealand from 2015 to 2018.

Background

Cook was born in

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

, in 1949 and was educated at Bayfield High School, Dunedin and the

University of Otago , image_name = University of Otago Registry Building2.jpg , image_size = , caption = University clock tower , motto = la, Sapere aude , mottoeng = Dare to be wise , established = 1869; 152 years ago , type = Public research collegiate ...

where he did a BA (Hons) in Maths and Stats. He attended Henley Management Centre in 1989 and

INSEAD INSEAD, a contraction of "Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires" () is a non-profit business school that maintains campuses in Europe ( Fontainebleau, France), Asia (Singapore), the Middle East (Abu Dhabi, UAE), and North America (San ...

in 1998.''"Appointment of National Statistician and Director of Office for National Statistics"''
, 10 Downing Street press notice, 17 February 2000. Retrieved 20 June 2007. Cook was elected a Chartered Statistician of the

Royal Statistical Society The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) is an established statistical society. It has three main roles: a British learned society for statistics, a professional body for statisticians and a charity which promotes statistics for the public good. ...

in 1973 and a Companion of the

Royal Society of New Zealand Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a cit ...

in 2005. He served as one of three vice-presidents of the

International Statistical Institute The International Statistical Institute (ISI) is a professional association of statisticians. It was founded in 1885, although there had been international statistical congresses since 1853. The institute has about 4,000 elected members from gov ...

from 2005 to 2007 and is a visiting fellow of

Nuffield College, Oxford Nuffield College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is a graduate college and specialises in the social sciences, particularly economics, politics and sociology. Nuffield is one of Oxford's newer c ...

. He was made a

in June 2005. Cook had a particular interest in social policy,

demography Demography () is the statistics, statistical study of populations, especially human beings. Demographic analysis examines and measures the dimensions and Population dynamics, dynamics of populations; it can cover whole societies or groups ...

, statistical methodology and the application of information technology in statistical systems. He was interested in the promotion of research methodology in public policy analysis and decision-making with past interests particularly in retirement provision and taxation policies. He and his partner, Shirley Flora Vollweiler, have no children. His hobbies are languages, travel, hiking and fly fishing.

Department of Statistics, New Zealand

After joining the Department of Statistics, New Zealand, (now

Statistics New Zealand Statistics New Zealand ( mi, Tatauranga Aotearoa), branded as Stats NZ, is the public service department of New Zealand charged with the collection of statistics related to the economy, population and society of New Zealand. To this end, Stats ...

) in 1971, he was appointed as Assistant Government Statistician in 1982, Deputy Government Statistician in 1986 and Government Statistician in 1992. He was a member of the secretariat of the Prime Minister's Task Force on Tax Reform in 1981/82 and a member of the Royal Commission on Social Policy in New Zealand in 1987/88.

Office for National Statistics, United Kingdom

Cook took up the post of

National Statistician The National Statistician is the Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, and the Head of the UK Government Statistical Service. The office was created by the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. The UK Statistics Authority announce ...

and Director of the Office for National Statistics at the end of May 2000. He was the second head of the ONS but the first to have the title of National Statistician. He returned to New Zealand and was succeeded by

Karen Dunnell Dame Karen Hope Dunnell, DCB, FAcSS (''née'' Williamson; born 16 June 1946) is an American-born British medical sociologist and civil servant. She was National Statistician and Chief Executive of the Office for National Statistics of the U ...

in September 2005.''"National Statistician - Director Office for National Statistics"''
, 10 Downing Street press release, 4 August 2005. Retrieved 21 June 2007. He led the creation and publication of the National Statistics Code of Practice. Probably his most publicised act in his time in the United Kingdom came in February 2005, when as Registrar General he had to rule on the legality of the

wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla Parker Bowles The wedding of Prince Charles (later Charles III) and Camilla Parker Bowles took place in a civil ceremony at Windsor Guildhall, on 9 April 2005. The ceremony, conducted in the presence of the couple's families, was followed by a Church of Eng ...

.''"Registrar allows Charles' wedding"''
BBC news report, 8 March 2005, retrieved 10 June 2007.

References

External links

Len Cook, Esq, CBE
at Debrett's ''People of Today'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Cook, Len 1949 births Directors of the Office for National Statistics Government Statisticians of New Zealand Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Living people New Zealand mathematicians British statisticians University of Otago alumni New Zealand statisticians Scientists from Dunedin Elected Members of the International Statistical Institute Presidents of the International Statistical Institute Registrars-General for England and Wales Companions of the Royal Society of New Zealand People educated at Bayfield High School, Dunedin 20th-century New Zealand public servants