Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the latest employee activity rates for (1) England and each of the regions of England, (2) Northern Ireland, (3) Scotland, (4) Wales, and (5) the United Kingdom as a whole.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon. Member's Parliamentary Question of HL6457 is attached.
The Rt Hon. the Lord Wigley
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
8 April 2025
Dear Lord Wigley,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what are the latest employee activity rates for (1) England and each of the regions of England, (2) Northern Ireland, (3) Scotland, (4) Wales, and (5) the United Kingdom as a whole (HL6457).
An employee activity rate measures the amount of time employees spend engaged in productive billable work, versus non-billable activities. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) does not collect any information from businesses on their estimated employee activity rates.
We can estimate the proportion of the population aged from 16 to 64 years, that are employed as employees, which may be interpreted as an employee activity rate.
The ONS uses the Annual Population Survey (APS), which is a survey of people resident in households in the UK, to estimates of the number of employees in the regions and countries of the UK and the proportion of the population aged from 16 to 64 years that this represents.
Table 1 contains APS estimates of the number of employees aged 16 to 64 years and the proportion of the population of that age this represents, for the regions and countries of the UK, for the period October 2023 to September 2024, the latest data currently available. Table 1 should be read in conjunction with the advice on quality contained in the footnotes of this response.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
Table 1: Number of employees aged 16 to 64 years and the proportion of the population of that age that represents, for the regions and countries of the UK, October 2023 to September 2024[1].
| Number of employees aged 16 to 64 years (thousands) | Proportion of population aged 16 to 64 years (%) |
North East | 1,050 | 64.1 |
North West | 2,962 | 65.4 |
Yorkshire and The Humber | 2,214 | 65.1 |
East Midlands | 2,007 | 67.4 |
West Midlands | 2,402 | 65.7 |
East of England | 2,555 | 66.8 |
London | 3,975 | 64.2 |
South East | 3,894 | 69.0 |
South West | 2,258 | 67.0 |
England | 23,316 | 66.2 |
Wales | 1,242 | 64.5 |
Scotland | 2,270 | 65.5 |
Northern Ireland | 760 | 64.6 |
United Kingdom | 24,558 | 66.1 |
Source: Annual Population Survey
[1]The ongoing challenges with response rates, response levels and weighting approach mean that labour market statistics based on both the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the APS are considered ’official statistics in development’ until further review. Because of increased volatility of LFS and APS estimates, estimates of change should be treated with additional caution. The APS estimates have not been weighted to the same populations as the LFS. Therefore, all APS tables will be inconsistent with those used for LFS in the latest periods.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many statutory public inquiries established under the Inquiries Act 2005 are currently still active; whether each inquiry has a target date for its completion; and whether there are financial resources ear-marked to cover the ongoing costs.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
There are currently 10 statutory public inquiries established by HM Government under the Inquiries Act 2005 still active. Each inquiry has a sponsor department whose role includes covering ongoing costs. The duration of an inquiry is a matter for the inquiry chair, who usually has target dates for completion.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had, if any, since July 2024 with the Royal Household about the inclusion of a symbolic representation of Wales on the royal standard.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Since July 2024, no discussion has been held with the Royal Household by the government about the inclusion of a symbolic representation of Wales on the royal standard.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Twycross on 19 November (HL2370), what are the latest figures for employee activity rates for the regions of England.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.
The Rt Hon. the Lord Wigley
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
4 December 2024
Dear Lord Wigley,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Twycross on 19 November (HL2370), what are the latest figures for employee activity rates for the regions of England (HL3125).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) collects information on the labour market status of individuals through the Labour Force Survey (LFS), which is a survey of people resident in households in the UK. The responses allow us to estimate how many people are in employment, and how many of those are in employment as employees, as opposed to other forms of employment such as self-employed.
Due to the current smaller sample sizes being achieved by the LFS, recent estimates are showing increased volatility and should be treated with additional caution.
The latest available estimates (July to September 2024) of the rates of employees for people aged 16 to 64 years, determined as the percentage of the population in employment as an employee, resident in each of England’s nine regions, are presented in Table 1.
Table 1: Rates of employees, people aged 16 to 64 years, regions in England, not seasonally adjusted.
Region in England | July to September 2024 |
North East | 65.4 |
North West | 65.9 |
Yorkshire and The Humber | 64.1 |
East Midlands | 66.8 |
West Midlands | 65.3 |
East | 67.5 |
London | 65.1 |
South East | 68.1 |
South West | 67.1 |
Source: Labour Force Survey
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the target date for the completion of payments to all those identified as victims of infected blood.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Our priority is to pay compensation as quickly as possible. The Infected Blood Compensation Authority is working to put in place a claim service that is simple and secure. We expect the Infected Blood Compensation Authority to begin making payments to people who are infected by the end of this year.
For people diagnosed with an eligible infection before 1 April 2025, the Scheme will remain open to applications until 31 March 2031. For people diagnosed after 1 April 2025, the Scheme will remain open to applications for 6 years from the person’s date of diagnosis.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what conversations they have had with the Welsh Government about seeking to include statistics on the number of people resident in England who can speak, read or write in the Welsh language in the 2031 census.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.
The Rt Hon. the Lord Wigley
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
18 November 2024
Dear Lord Wigley,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what conversations have been had with the Welsh Government about seeking to include statistics on the number of people resident in England who can speak, read or write in the Welsh language in the 2031 census (HL2487).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is developing its population and migration statistics by further expanding the range of data sources and methods it uses. A key focus of the Future Population and Migration Statistics (FPMS) Programme is continuing to expand the use of administrative data to produce population and migration statistics, working across the public sector to maximise the statistical value of its data assets. The FPMS will create a sustainable statistics system that will be flexible and dynamic in how it responds to the emerging issues of the day. The UK Statistics Authority (the Authority) plans to publish a recommendation to government in the coming months.
Decisions about the 2031 census have not yet been made. As such, topics for inclusion in a 2031 census have not formed part of the ONS’ discussions with the Welsh Government or other stakeholders. The FPMS programme has an ongoing programme of user needs engagement and carried out a consultation in 2023[1], which acknowledged the importance of collecting data on this topic. The consultation document categorised Welsh language skills as a topic for which further research is required into delivering statistics primarily based on administrative data. Welsh language is regarded as a priority characteristic within the FPMS programme with exploratory work on this topic ongoing. However, it is likely that data on Welsh language skills will predominantly come from sources relating to people resident in Wales.
In April 2023, the ONS and Welsh Government published a joint work plan on the coherence of Welsh language statistics produced from different sources[2]. The first project, to understand differences between Census 2021 and household survey estimates, has been completed. Other work outlined in the plan is ongoing, with the next priority looking at comparing Census 2021 with the Welsh School Census and other administrative sources. Welsh Government and ONS teams meet monthly to discuss progress and are arranging a secondment from Welsh Government to the ONS to support work on the planned projects. The ONS is also exploring the feasibility of producing Welsh language estimates through using existing administrative sources, with the involvement of Welsh Government.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
[1]https://consultations.ons.gov.uk/ons/futureofpopulationandmigrationstatistics/
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the latest figures for employee activity rates for (1) England, (2) Scotland, (3) Wales, and (4) Northern Ireland.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.
The Rt Hon. the Lord Wigley
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
11 November 2024
Dear Lord Wigley,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what are the latest figures for employee activity rates for (1) England, (2) Scotland, (3) Wales, and (4) Northern Ireland (HL2370).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) collects information on the labour market status of individuals through the Labour Force Survey (LFS), which is a survey of people resident in households in the UK. The responses allow us to estimate how many people are in employment, and how many of those are in employment as employees, as opposed to other forms of employment such as self-employed.
Due to the current smaller sample sizes being achieved by the LFS, recent estimates are showing increased volatility and should be treated with additional caution.
The latest available estimates (June to August 2024) of the rates of employees for people aged 16 to 64 years, determined as the percentage of the population in employment as an employee, resident in each of the UK’s four nations, are presented in Table 1.
Table 1: Rates of employees, people aged 16 to 64 years, England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, not seasonally adjusted.
| England | Scotland | Wales | Northern Ireland |
June to August 2024 | 66.5% | 65.0% | 62.7% | 62.2% |
Source: Labour Force Survey
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government which inquiries conducted under the Inquiries Act 2005 involved matters which were wholly or partly devolved in Wales when the inquiry started.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Since the introduction of the Inquiries Act 2005, there have been three inquiries which include matters which are partly or wholly devolved to Wales: the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, the Infected Blood Inquiry, and the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether payments of compensation to contaminated blood victims will be funded outside the projected annual expenditure on health and social security budgets.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
Given the uncertainty over costs, the scheme will be scored as Capital Annually Managed Expenditure. Annually Managed Expenditure is spend on programmes which are demand led - such as welfare, tax credits or public sector pensions. It is spent on items that may be unpredictable or not easily controlled by departments, as opposed to Departmental Expenditure Limits (DEL) which are allocated to and spent by Government departments. We will set out what this means for the public finances in the usual way at the next fiscal event.
Asked by: Lord Wigley (Plaid Cymru - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the most recent statistics on the Economic Activity Rate of each of the UK's four nations, and what were the equivalent rates (1) 10, and (2) 20, years earlier.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.
The Rt Hon. the Lord Wigley
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
Dear Lord Wigley,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what are the most recent statistics on the Economic Activity Rate of each of the UK’s four nations, and what were the equivalent rates (1) 10, and (2) 20, years earlier (HL4552).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) collects information on the labour market status of individuals through the Labour Force Survey (LFS), which is a survey of people resident in households in the UK.
The responses allow us to identify how many people are economically active; that is, those who are engaged with the labour market, either through employment or who are unemployed and actively seeking work. We are also able to calculate economic activity rates by region using these data.
Due to the current smaller sample sizes being achieved by the LFS, recent estimates are showing increased volatility and should be treated with additional caution. We are currently undertaking a programme of work to improve our estimates of the UK labour market. As part of this work, we have updated our labour market estimates from July to September 2022 onwards to incorporate more up to date estimates of the UK population. Labour market estimates prior to this remain based on older population estimates. Therefore, the latest available estimates of the UK labour market, for January to March 2024, are on a different population basis than those ten and twenty years earlier. As a result of this we recommend caution when considering long-term movements in these series.
The latest available estimates (January to March 2024) of the economic activity rates, for people aged 16 to 64 years, resident in each of the UK’s four nations are presented in Table 1, alongside estimates for January to March 2014 and January to March 2004.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
Table 1: Economic Activity Rates, people aged 16 to 64 years, England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, seasonally adjusted.
| England | Scotland | Wales | Northern Ireland |
January to March 2004 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
January to March 2024 [1] |
|
|
|
|
Source: Labour Force Survey
[1] Estimate based on more up to date population estimates and subject to greater volatility due to smaller achieved sample sizes. We advise caution when interpreting movements in these series.