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<p>The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.</p><p>
</p><p>Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive
of the UK Statistics Authority.</p><p> </p><p>The Lord Taylor of Warwick</p><p>House
of Lords</p><p>London</p><p>SW1A 0PW</p><p> </p><p>21 February 2024</p><p>Dear Lord
Taylor,</p><p> </p><p>As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics
Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking, following reports
of concern from analysts regarding the reliability of figures released by the Office
for National Statistics (ONS), what steps they are taking to ensure that the ONS Labour
Force Survey (LFS) is reliable and accurate <strong>(HL2453)</strong>.</p><p> </p><p>Following
the suspension of publishing LFS estimates and micro-data in October 2023 because
of quality concerns, the ONS put a comprehensive plan [1] in place to address these
concerns and reintroduce LFS estimates and micro-data. The plan covers both data collection
measures and methods used to make the survey estimates more representative of the
UK population.</p><p> </p><p>The planned improvements to data collection procedures
were implemented in October/November 2023. These included the prioritisation of interviewer
resource allocated to the LFS, the reintroduction of in-home interviewing, recontacting
households that did not respond, and increasing the monetary incentive to participate.
Furthermore, at the start of January we have increased the number of households we
initially contact on the survey by 8,000 up to 25,800 for the quarter of January to
March 2024. The combination of measures has already resulted in an increase in the
achieved sample and we plan to maintain these measures for the foreseeable future.</p><p>
</p><p>As part of the improvements to our methods used to make the survey estimates
more representative [2], the ONS have produced UK population projections specifically
for the purpose of the LFS. This used 2022-based population projections for England
and Wales combined with population estimates for Scotland and Northern Ireland. Additionally,
we have reviewed and where appropriate adjusted the estimation method for the LFS
to account for the challenges of low response levels in certain areas.</p><p> </p><p>Both
the improvements to data collection operations and methods to improve representativeness
had a positive impact on the quality and reliability of the LFS data and enabled the
ONS to reintroduce the publication of LFS-based estimates and micro-data from 13 February
2024.</p><p> </p><p>As we expect to continue to see higher volatility in LFS data
in the short term than might historically have been the case, we continue to advise
users to apply caution when observing short-term changes in the survey-based estimates.
As well as this, the commentary we publish alongside our statistics bulletins should
also be considered.</p><p> </p><p>While we are working hard to improve our LFS-based
data, it remains our plan to make the transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS) our main
measure for the UK labour market. The TLFS is an online-first survey that asks many
more people about their employment status. While early returns from this survey look
positive, we need a longer consistent time series to aid interpretation before we
share these data with users. We expect the TLFS to become the primary source for the
labour market release in September 2024.</p><p> </p><p>Yours sincerely,</p><p>Professor
Sir Ian Diamond</p><p> </p><p>[1] Labour Force Survey: planned improvements and its
reintroduction, ONS article, 2 November 2023,</p><p><a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/methodologies/labourforcesurveyplannedimprovementsanditsreintroduction"
target="_blank">https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/methodologies/labourforcesurveyplannedimprovementsanditsreintroduction</a></p><p>
</p><p>[2] Impact of reweighting on Labour Force Survey key indicators: 2024, ONS
article, 5 February 2024,</p><p><a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/impactofreweightingonlabourforcesurveykeyindicators/2024"
target="_blank">https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/impactofreweightingonlabourforcesurveykeyindicators/2024</a></p>
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