Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment she has made of the (a) accuracy and (b) utility of the Office for National Statistics Labour Force Survey.

Answered by Tulip Siddiq - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)

Data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) remains subject to a number of quality concerns following a fall in response rates, which fell from 47.9% in June to August 2013 to 14.6% in June to August 2023.

The ONS is undertaking work to address these quality issues through improvements to its data collection and methodology. The ONS is also continuing to develop the Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS) as the long-term solution for collecting labour market data.

While these improvements are underway, LFS estimates are currently designated as ‘official statistics in development’, and the ONS advise caution when interpreting changes in headline LFS rates.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps she is taking to help increase availability of practical driving tests in Earley and Woodley.

Answered by Lilian Greenwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency’s (DVSA) main priority is upholding road safety standards while reducing car practical driving test waiting times.

Measures in place to reduce waiting times for customers, include buying back annual leave from driving examiners (DE), conducting tests outside regular hours, including at weekends and on public holidays and recruiting more DEs.

In its most recent recruitment campaign, DVSA had two successful candidates in Slough and three in Reading, and it has made offers to these prospective DEs. DVSA launched its latest recruitment campaign in September 2024 and is working to recruit three DEs in Farnborough, four in Slough and five into Reading DTC, which serves the areas of Earley and Woodley.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of (a) the number of constituents in Earley and Woodley who will be affected by reductions in sickness benefits announced at the budget and (b) the average financial impact of those reductions on individuals.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

No reductions in sickness benefits were announced at the Budget.

Found: Q111 Yuan Yang: Thank you to the panel for spending your afternoon with us.

Found: Q16 Yuan Yang: Thanks to the whole panel for your immense work on this outlook.