"The UK's statistics agency has announced plans to scrap some of its publications on health, crime and the regions of Britain as part of its recovery plan to boost the reliability of its core data. Under pressure over the quality of its data, the Office for National Statistics said it would reduce the number of reports it produces each year by about 10% in 2026 to help it prioritise resources."
"This includes issues with the labour force survey (LFS), the official measure of employment in the UK, which has been beset by problems amid a collapse in response rates. The LFS is also a critical component of data on productivity, which is a measure of economic output per hour of work or employee."
"Reeves is widely expected to be handed a sharply downgraded OBR forecast for UK productivity growth at the budget, in a financial blow worth up to 20bn, increasing the likelihood of the chancellor raising taxes. Economists have said policymakers are flying blind amid issues with the LFS caused by low response rates, which the ONS has previously said could take until 2027 to fix."
The Office for National Statistics will reduce its annual reports by about 10% in 2026 to prioritise resources and improve the reliability of core data. The ONS plans to narrow publications on health, crime and regional statistics and to launch a new website and clearer outputs. The labour force survey (LFS), the official employment measure, has suffered collapsing response rates, undermining employment and productivity statistics. Concerns from the Treasury and the OBR precede the autumn budget and a likely downgraded productivity forecast that could reduce fiscal headroom by up to £20bn and raise tax likelihoods. The ONS anticipates LFS fixes may take until 2027.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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