Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government why analysis of the number of (1) school workers, and (2) other key workers who had COVID-19, has not been included in ONS infection surveys since 6 November 2020; and what plans they have to publish such analysis for the period since 6 November 2020.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.

14 January 2021

Dear Lord Jones,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking why analysis of the number of (1) school workers, and (2) other key workers who had COVID-19, has not been included in Office for National Statistics (ONS) infection surveys since 6 November 2020; and what plans there are to publish such analysis for the period since 6 November 2020 (HL11748).

The ONS is committed to providing statistics for the public good and produce analysis which covers as many of our users’ needs as possible.

Understanding occupational risk across all sectors is vitally important. As such we are conducting analysis across all occupations to gain a deeper understanding of all professions. This will include occupations within the education sector which we have previously published analysis on. We will publish this analysis in our monthly articles.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond