Sir, The Monetary Policy Committee’s membership of nine people is far too small to be representative of opinions in making decisions about setting the Bank of England’s interest rate. Classical sampling theory points to a minimum size of about 30 people, via a random selection from a universe of suitably qualified people, of which there is doubtless a huge number available in the UK. The current small size of membership and the non-random method of its selection involves a high probability of biased outcomes.
Peter Stoney
Honorary Senior Fellow, University of Liverpool Management School