Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the challenges of applying (1) standard industrial classification, and (2) standard occupational classification, codes to sectors with high levels of self-employment, including crafts and visual arts.

HMRC does not ask for, and therefore does not hold, self-employment standard occupational classification information.

HMRC publishes breakdowns by Standard Industrial Classification.

Table 3.9 of HMRC’s Personal Incomes Statistics provides information on the number of self-employment sources by self-employment income, classified according to the Standard Industrial Classification of Economic Activities 2007 (SIC), including Arts, Entertainment and Recreation. [1]

The Personal Incomes Statistics series assigns income to an industry using the business text descriptions supplied on self-assessment form SA103. These descriptions are adapted into SIC codes through a long-established classification process. Where the description is missing or not sufficiently detailed to enable a reliable SIC assignment, the industry is recorded as unknown.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/self-employment-income-assessable-to-tax-2010-to-2011