Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Office for National Statistics has provided (a) data, (b) technical support and (c) modelling assistance her Department in connection with analyses of (i) tax contributions and (ii) benefit claims by (A) ethnicity, (B) nationality, and (C) country of birth.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) produces the Living Costs and Food survey which is one of the household microdata sets used regularly for analysis of tax and welfare measures by protected characteristics to fulfil the requirements under the Public Sector Equality Duty in the Equality Act 2010. The ONS has not provided any technical support or modelling assistance.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what information his Department holds on the number of women who suffered baby loss between 2020 and 2025.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Baby loss can include miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, stillbirth, and neonatal death. Official statistics published by the Office for National Statistics on stillbirths and neonatal deaths are available at the following link:
NHS England does not hold comprehensive data on miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies as it is not consistently or officially counted in the same way as live births, stillbirths, or neonatal deaths. The Maternity Services Data Set records information from the point of a person booking an appointment for maternity care and therefore does not include losses prior to contact with National Health Service maternity services, nor is the data of sufficient quality and completeness to produce any counts data. Information on miscarriages and ectopic pregnancies resulting in a hospital stay is published in the Hospital Episodes Statistics, although not all such pregnancies will involve an NHS hospital stay and therefore will not be included, with further information available in Table 1i, named Miscarriage and ectopic pregnancies which resulted in an NHS hospital stay, in the document attached.
The most recent available data shows that there were 31,046 finished consultant episodes with a primary diagnosis of miscarriage in 2020/21, 33,352 in 2021/22, 33,126 in 2022/23, and 35,876 in 2023/24. In addition, there were 10,368 finished consultant episodes with a primary diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy in 2020/21, 11,088 in 2021/22, 10,999 in 2022/23, and 12,122 in 2023/24.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answer of 27 October 2025 to Question 84157 on Immigration Controls: Northern Ireland, what information her Department holds on the outcomes of Operation Gull; and what criteria she uses to evaluate the success of that operation.
Answered by Alex Norris - Minister of State (Home Office)
To maintain the highest standards of accuracy, the Home Office prefers to refer to published data, as this has been subject to rigorous quality assurance under National Statistics protocols prior to publication. Information about outcomes and criteria to evaluate the success of Operation Gull is not available in our published data.
Our published national data on enforcement activity is available at the following link and includes data on detected irregular arrivals to the UK: Immigration system statistics, year ending June 2025 - GOV.UK
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's statistics entitled Graduate labour market statistics, published on 5 June 2025, what steps she is taking to improve levels of high-skilled employment among graduates aged 21-30.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department publishes the ‘Graduate Labour Market Statistics’, which provides statistics on employment and earnings outcomes for post-graduates, graduates and non-graduates. The publication includes estimates for high-skilled employment for graduates aged 21-30 years. In 2024, 60.1% of young graduates (age 21-30) were in high-skilled employment, a 0.1 percentage point increase on 2023 at 60.0%. This data was published on 5 June 2025, and is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/graduate-labour-markets/2024.
Higher education (HE) should be a pathway to opportunity for all students. Students and taxpayers deserve a good return on their significant investment in HE, and our economy needs graduates to go on to highly skilled and well-paid employment. We are supporting the Office for Students to implement a new expanded quality system that will include a specific focus on the needs and benefits of HE to employers.
We published our Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper on 20 October 2025, which sets out our reforms to the skills system to support the development of the skilled workforce our economy needs, delivering on our Plan for Change and driving national renewal.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to her Department's statistics entitled Graduate labour market statistics, published on 5 June 2025, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the rate of improvement in high-skilled employment among graduates aged 21-30.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department publishes the ‘Graduate Labour Market Statistics’, which provides statistics on employment and earnings outcomes for post-graduates, graduates and non-graduates. The publication includes estimates for high-skilled employment for graduates aged 21-30 years. In 2024, 60.1% of young graduates (age 21-30) were in high-skilled employment, a 0.1 percentage point increase on 2023 at 60.0%. This data was published on 5 June 2025, and is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/graduate-labour-markets/2024.
Higher education (HE) should be a pathway to opportunity for all students. Students and taxpayers deserve a good return on their significant investment in HE, and our economy needs graduates to go on to highly skilled and well-paid employment. We are supporting the Office for Students to implement a new expanded quality system that will include a specific focus on the needs and benefits of HE to employers.
We published our Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper on 20 October 2025, which sets out our reforms to the skills system to support the development of the skilled workforce our economy needs, delivering on our Plan for Change and driving national renewal.
Asked by: Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the value of goods imported from China to the UK each year for the past 10 years.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.
The Lord Elliott of Ballinamallard
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
27 October 2025
Dear Lord Elliott,
As Acting National Statistician, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking for the value of goods imported from China to the UK each year for the past 10 years (HL11221).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes UK trade in goods data at country level in our trade in goods: country by commodity imports dataset as part of our monthly UK trade release[1]. This data is available up to August 2025.
Data on UK imports of goods from China can be found in Table 1. Please note that all data are in current prices and, as such, include the effect of inflation.
Table 1: UK imports of goods from China, 2015 – 2024
£ billion, current prices, including precious metals
Year | Import value (£bn) |
2015 | 36.947 |
2016 | 40.827 |
2017 | 43.706 |
2018 | 44.231 |
2019 | 49.973 |
2020 | 55.198 |
2021 | 65.970 |
2022 | 71.481 |
2023 | 68.109 |
2024 | 67.264 |
Source: Office for National Statistics
Yours sincerely,
Emma Rourke
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answers of 26 September 2025, to Questions 75632, 74515, 74202, on Civil Service: Unpaid Work, whether the Office for National Statistics classifies the occupations of (a) tool-makers, (b) factory owners, (c) Members of Parliament, (d) Ministers of the Crown and (e) civil servants as working class under the NS-SEC framework.
Answered by Josh Simons - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 22nd October is attached.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate his Department has made of the potential impact of the changes to income thresholds in the Statement of Changes in Immigration Rules, HC 997, published on 1 July 2025, on the number of people employed on Skilled Worker Visas who no longer have leave to remain.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
On 12 May, The Home Office published our Immigration White Paper, outlining our future approach to legal migration routes. The Home Office made Immigration Rules changes bringing the first of these reforms into effect. The 22 July changes included raising the skills threshold to RQF 6 and a routine uplift of salary going rates.
The salary uplift is based on changes in UK workers’ earnings, as recorded in the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings conducted by the Office of National Statistics. This ensures that migrant workers are not used to undercut UK workers and are not exploited by being underpaid, which would create downward pressure on wages.
Recent salary changes only affect those already in the Skilled Worker route when they next make an application to change employment, extend their stay, or settle. Sponsors are not required to increase salary in line with the new salary requirements for the duration of a worker’s existing permission. The changes only apply when they next make an application to change employment or extend their stay. This is in line with normal practice.
Those who have been in the route since before 4 April 2024 continue to be subject to lower overall salary requirements.
On 2 July, The Home Office asked the Migration Advisory Committee to advise on future salary requirements for Skilled Worker visas and the Temporary Shortage List.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to enhance data accuracy and accountability in the Office for National Statistics.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Access to accurate and impartial statistics and data is fundamental to a thriving democracy. Earlier this year, the Cabinet Office and the UK Statistics Authority commissioned a review on the performance and culture of the Office of National Statistics (ONS) after concerns were raised about the quality of our economic statistics.
The Devereux Review, the Cabinet Office and UKSA Board's official response to the Devereux Review, and the ONS’ plan for improving their economic statistics were published in June and are available on both the Cabinet Office and UK Statistics Authority websites.
Cabinet Office and HM Treasury are now working closely with ONS to progress the recommendations of the Devereux Review to enhance the quality of our data.
A new post of Permanent Secretary of the ONS has been created and filled, and a new Director General overseeing economic statistics has been appointed. The ONS is undergoing a prioritisation exercise which is focusing its resources on its core remit of producing economic, population and migration statistics. Progress is being tracked through regular meetings between Cabinet Office and the ONS.
The Cabinet Office is also clarifying the accountability and oversight arrangements of the UK Statistics Authority and ONS. The impartiality and operational autonomy of the UK Statistics Authority and ONS is essential for public trust and confidence in our official statistics, but the department must be accountable to both HM Government and Parliament for their performance and the quality of the data they produce. This relationship will be set out in a new Framework Document which will be published soon.
Asked by: Baroness Carberry of Muswell Hill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to improve the coverage, accuracy and reliability of the Labour Force Survey, and what progress they have made in those improvements.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.
The Baroness Carberry of Muswell Hill
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
22 October 2025
Dear Baroness Carberry of Muswell Hill,
As Permanent Secretary of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what steps the ONS have taken to improve the coverage, accuracy and reliability of the Labour Force Survey (LFS), and what progress the ONS have made in those improvements (HL11013).
Our recently published plans for economic statistics and survey improvement and enhancement reinforce the importance of, and our commitment to, delivering high-quality labour market statistics.
The LFS remains the lead measure for data on the supply of labour while further development of the Transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS) takes place.
Over the last two years, we have taken several actions to address quality concerns with the LFS. These include:
reinstating the sample boost
returning to face-to-face interviewing
increasing incentives
the ongoing recruitment of additional interviewers
These interventions have now fed through all five waves of the survey. Response levels and rates have shown clear improvement because of these actions, with Wave 1 response levels now very close to their pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic level. The composition of respondents according to different characteristics has also shown some improvement since late 2023; however, representativeness is lower than before the pandemic and has not improved for all characteristics.
These improvements have been welcomed by the Stakeholder Advisory Panel on Labour Market Statistics, as they increase confidence that the LFS can be fit for purpose until the transition to the TLFS takes place.
We are increasing interviewer capacity for Waves 2 to 5 to further improve response rates, as these currently remain lower than their pre-pandemic level. We continue to closely monitor LFS data quality and regularly update users as part of our LFS quality articles, which assess the impact of recent changes on the statistics, response levels and rates, and respondent characteristics.
In parallel to these LFS improvements, progress with the TLFS continues. The short Core Survey (a streamlined, longitudinal, labour-market-focused questionnaire that takes 15 minutes per household to complete on average) launched in July 2025, with a Wave 1 sample size of 90,000 households per quarter across Great Britain. The new TLFS design is expected to reduce respondent burden, improve completion rates and representativeness, and enhance the overall data quality of the headline labour market indicators.
We continue to keep users informed of progress with the transformation of our labour market statistics through our quarterly Labour Market Transformation articles, with the next update scheduled for November 2025. We would be happy to send you a copy when published.
Yours sincerely,
Darren Tierney
3. https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/labourforcesurveyqualityupdate/september2025
4. https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/labourmarkettransformationupdateonprogressandplans/july2025