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.

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.