Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 19 December 2024 to Question 19420 on Unemployment: Young People, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the ongoing data quality problems with the ONS Labour Force Survey on her Department's ability to monitor progress towards the 80 per cent employment target.

The independent Office for National Statistics (ONS) are responsible for the LFS, which is an important source of labour market information for the Department. In order to monitor the department's progress towards an 80% employment rate we need a robust Labour Force Survey (LFS). As such, we are engaging regularly with the ONS on these data issues and supporting ONS to improve the quality of the LFS.

The Department for Work and Pensions also continues to make more use of statistics based on administrative data (for example, benefit caseloads or HMRC PAYE data) alongside LFS statistics to form the best labour market view.

The ONS are also working on the Transformed Labour Force Survey to replace the LFS. The Department are working closely with the ONS and other government to ensure it is fit for purpose and provides reliable estimates of labour market trends.

We remain focussed on getting more people into work to grow our economy and improve living standards across all parts of the country.