1) Labour Party's BME employment figures
Media line - (Not yet used) "Labour Force Survey estimates for long-term unemployment among young
people from ethnic minorities are volatile, owing to small sample sizes. Estimates for the changes
between 2010 and 2014 vary considerably depending what time of year is looked at."
Any questions about how Labour has calculated its figure should be referred back to Labour.
More info
This is what ONS published in response to a request from BBC and Channel 4. This table shows
estimates of the amount of unemployed people aged 18-24 from ethnic minority groups and those
unemployed for more than one year. The estimates are from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) for 2010 and
2014, these show a fall in ethnic minority unemployment since 2010 - but series extremely volatile.
2) Blue and Pink Book publication delayed until September
Media line - Eurostat has written to all EU Member States stipulating that all outstanding Gross National
Income (GNI) reservations pertaining to their national accounts need to be addressed by 22 September
2015. To ensure that this deadline can be met, ONS is postponing the date of publication for the Blue and
Pink books until September.
3) Falling survey response rates
Media line - Household response rates are falling - including throughout the world.
(This is no surprise to anyone informed. ONS employ a number of strategies and methodologies to
overcome survey non-response. Our future statistical strategy centres upon reducing our reliance on
survey data collection.)
4) Overlapping data
Media line - Quality assurance processes discovered that ONS had been receiving overlapping data from
both Bank of England and UK Asset Resolution Ltd for a period from October 2014. Correcting this has
resulted in a £5.5bn addition to public sector net debt. Deficit and net cash requirement figures are not
affected in any way.
5) Researcher consultation
Media line - "There is no proposal to give commercial users unrestricted access to ONS data. All
researchers would be carefully vetted and access would only be permitted for projects that are judged by
ONS to serve the public good"
6) Error in March ONS Economic Review
Media line - The March edition of the ONS Economic Review inadvertently understated the median
growth rate of real earnings between 2013 and 2014 by 0.24 percentage points. The published figure of
0.3% has now been corrected to 0.6%. The median growth of earnings in 2013 is also affected to a lesser
extent, although this does not meaningfully change the way that these data are interpreted in the ONS
Economic Review.
All other years are unaffected and there is no impact on ASHE, or any other data.
7) Living standards and RHDI
Media line - When considering Economic Well-being, ONS uses a range of different indicators to provide
a rounded and comprehensive view.
One of the (10) headline indicators is RHDI per person and this is considered alongside a measure of
median household disposable income.
Real Household Disposable Income (RHDI) is quarterly and the most timely official measure of household
incomes. However, RHDI does not tell us about the distribution of household income or the wealth
position of households, and therefore it is important to consider alternative indicators as well.
More information:
HDI includes wages and salaries along with estimates of income from self-employment, and it also
includes the impact of direct taxes and social security contributions along with social benefits, with the
effects of prices and indirect taxes captured through the deflator.
However, we recognise that there are limitations of RHDI as a measure of economic well-being, for
example, it includes some imputed components that differ from a ‘cash’ measure and it includes the
income of Non-Profit Institutions Serving Households (NPISH).
ONS recently published an article showing the impact of excluding NPISH from Household Disposable
Income and Real Household Disposable Income (RHDI). This analysis shows that NPISH is a very small
proportion of RHDI, and it does not substantially change the growth rates in RHDI:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/naa1-rd/national-accounts-articles/measuring-household-only-realdisposable-income/rpt-measuring-real-household-disposable-income.html
8) Basket of goods
Media line - Speciality beers/ales, including craft beers, have been added to represent the sort of beers
produced, for example, by micro breweries and are generally purchased in single bottles. They are not
mainstream beers, are usually well packaged and are sometimes considered to be of higher quality. They
must be UK brewed. Fruit/wheat beers, ginger beer and lagers are excluded from the collection.
The individual product to be priced is left to the judgement of individual collectors around the country but
once they collect a particular brand, they are required to continue to collect that brand while it is stocked
in the shop.
9) Postponement of ONS Economic Forum
Media line - After re-considering the timing of the next ONS Economic Forum in the light of purdah
arrangements ahead of the General Election, it has been decided to cancel the planned
event on 22 April. The next Economic Forum will now take place in mid-May
10) Barker Review
Media line - "ONS seeks constantly to improve its statistics and listens closely to what users say. Kate
Barker's review of the National Accounts found them to be of a generally good standard but identified
some areas for attention. We are working hard on those and in many other ways to maintain public trust
in official statistics, which a recent UK Statistics Authority survey showed was reasonably high. "
Media line (from UKSA) -: "I can confirm the Authority has received a letter from David Gauke regarding
a statement made by the Leader of the Opposition on 4 April about statistics relating to living standards.
The Authority will look into the issues raised in Mr. Gauke's letter and will respond publicly when our
enquiries are complete."
11) Inflation
DRAFT Media line (reactive) - The rate of inflation is 0.0%. In other words, prices remained unchanged
in March 2015 when compared with a year earlier. If you calculate the rate of inflation from the unrounded
indices published by ONS, you will get a rate of approximately minus 0.01%. This compares with a figure
of plus 0.03% in February.
12) Cost of volunteering
Media line - (and correctly reported by the BBC news) £24bn (£23.9) is the ONS estimate of the value of
work carried out by volunteers in 2012/13, ie what it would cost if the same work were done by paid
workers instead of volunteers. This comes from an ONS article from December 2013, part of the
wellbeing programme: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/wellbeing/household-satellite-accounts/valuingvoluntary-activity-in-the-uk/art--valuing-voluntary-activity-in-the-uk.html
13) Housing Association Right to Buy
Media line - ONS cannot speculate on this at present. Should the possibility of a reclassification arise
ONS would announce its decision in the usual way.
14) GDP
Media line - as above, we don't speculate on the implications of manifesto pledges.
15) Living standards figures
Media line (from UKSA) -: "I can confirm the Authority has received a letter from David Gauke regarding
a statement made by the Leader of the Opposition on 4 April about statistics relating to living standards.
The Authority will look into the issues raised in Mr. Gauke's letter and will respond publicly when our
enquiries are complete."
16) Pay
Media line - We are planning a new pay system for 2016/17 and for 2015/16 we will be making an award
based on affordability and within our 1% remit.
17) LFS Question
Media line - "The published series in table 3 of the Labour Market Statistics bulletin is a figure produced
from those answering (3) to the following question on the Labour Force Survey:
I would like to ask you why you took a part-time rather than a full-time job.
Was it because...
1 You were a student/you were at school?
2 You were ill or disabled?
3 You could not find a full-time job?
4 You did not want a full-time job?
The Eurostat measure is based upon part-time workers who would like to work additional hours and are
available to do so. These are two different measures. The Eurostat figure, based upon wanting more
hours, is likely to be higher as there will be part-time workers who want to remain part-time but work more
hours than they currently do. Whereas the table 3 measure is narrower and applies to those who are parttime and want to work full-time."
18) GDP and revisions
Media line - Over the last 5 years, the average revision to GDP between the first and third estimates is
only 0.02%. Growth was just as likely to be revised downwards as upwards.
ONS produces one of the speediest estimates of growth among the major economies. It is produced
using all of the available data plus statistical modelling, (which isn't quite the same as guesswork)
19) GDP and construction figures.
Media line - Construction represents only 6.4 per cent of GDP, so any impact on the GDP figures is
substantially diluted. Arithmetically, to get a change in construction's contribution to GDP growth of 0.1
percentage points, a change of 1.6% to estimated construction output would be needed.
The ONS construction survey samples 8,000 businesses each month and is the biggest and best
measure of the UK construction sector. The reason the publication lost National Statistics status was
because of concerns about the construction price indices, used to deflate the data, previously produced
by BIS.
20) Travel trends
The publication of Travel Trends 2014 and Overseas Travel and Tourism March 2015 has been
postponed until 20 and 21 May respectively. This is to allow for further quality assurance on Travel
Trends and to reconcile the monthly and annual data.
The publication of Travel Trends 2014 and Overseas Travel and Tourism March 2015 was postponed
until 20 and 21 May respectively. This is to allow for further quality assurance on Travel Trends and to
reconcile the monthly and annual data.
21) Deflation.
Media line - CPI annual inflation – the Government’s target measure was -0.1% in April 2015, compared
to no change (0.0%) in March 2015. The biggest element of the change to the annual rate came from
transport services, notably air and sea fares, with the timing of Easter in relation to index day likely to
have played a role in the change.
22) Deflation in the 1960s
Media line - The modelled series of CPI shows that inflation was last negative in March 1960 when it was
-0.6%. At the first level of disaggregation, the main downward pulls on inflation came from food and nonalcoholic beverages (-2.2%), alcohol and tobacco (-3.0%) and furniture, household equipment and
maintenance (-2.6%). This information is available (together with the modelling procedures) from http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/cpi/modelling-a-back-series-for-the-consumer-price-index/1950--2011/index.html.
23) Blue Book
Media lines  The Impact article includes the revisions to GNI in the period 2002 to 2010. These numbers are
indicative at the moment - final numbers will be available later in the year ahead of formal
submission to Eurostat and publication in the UK National Accounts in Sept 2015.

The ESA 1995 changes have the combined impact of reducing the UK's GNI by approx £11.9
billion between 2002 to 2010. This is 0.1% of total UK GNI over the whole period.

The adjusted EH budget contributions are likely to be announced in November 2015.

GNI is equal to GDP plus net property income from abroad - (property income is not the income
generated by the ownership of buildings, ie rentals. It is made up of interest, the distributed
income of corporations and rent on land.

Eurostat are the EU statistical office - they carry out regular audits of ONS methods and data
(same applies to all EU member states). Following a comprehensive audit in 2012 a number of
improvements were identified in the UK National Accounts. These are known as reservations.
ONS addressed some of these reservations in Blue Book 2014.

At this stage it is not possible to estimate the net impact on the UK's contribution to the EU
budget from these changes because the net adjustment to any members state's past
contributions is relative to the GNI figures returned across all member states and other countries
are also likely to be revising their GNI returns.
Media lines What is the average (and absolute average) revision between Preliminary GDP and QNA?
In the last 5 years the average revision between Preliminary GDP and QNA is 0.02 percentage points,
with the average absolute revision being 0.07 percentage points. There have been 7 upwards revisions, 5
downwards revisions and 8 no changes.
What is the average (and absolute average) revision between Preliminary Estimate and the figure
produced 3 years later?
For the period 2005 Q1 to 2011 Q4 the average revision between Preliminary GDP and the figure
produced 3 years later is -0.05 percentage points, with the average absolute revision being 0.33
percentage points. It should be noted that these revisions will occur due to methods changes as well as
receipt of new data.
24) 2021 Census topic consultation (launched 4 June)
Media lines - Our initial view on the content of the 2021 Census questionnaire is summarised in our
consultation document (The 2021 Census: Initial view on content for England and Wales). No census is
ever the same. Every census has to take account of changing user needs and changes in society. This is
why we need the help and feedback from all our stakeholders and census users.
We value feedback from our users and will run various other engagement activities to help us design the
2021 Census. Our 2021 Census topic consultation is just the first step in the process we’ll be taking to
deliver another successful census in 2021.
Our public consultation about the topics for the next census in England and Wales will take place from 4
June to 27 August 2015.
25) Construction prices contract
Media line - as per the statement:
"On 1 April 2015, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) took responsibility for the production of the
Construction Price & Cost Indices (PCIs) from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS).
This transfer of responsibility included the management of the existing contract with AECOM. The
contract’s duration was 2 years until 30 June 2015, with an option to extend for a further 2 years.
After a review of the contract, taking account of the work ONS has undertaken since 1 April to develop
intermediate construction price indices, it has been decided not to offer AECOM an extension to its
contract beyond 30 June 2015, but to continue to develop a long-term solution in-house.
On 8th May ONS published an article (254.5 Kb Pdf) describing an interim method for Construction
Output Prices for use in the production of New Orders and Output in the Construction Industry. As set out
in that article, ONS will continue to work with users to consider the best approach to develop new
methods in the long term. ONS will publish full plans for this long-term development by the end of 2015.
ONS wishes to thank AECOM for all the work they have completed on PCIs over the last two years."
26) BBC licence fee and Public Sector Finances
Media line - tbc, please speak to MF if any media calls received. ONS has told the BBC to take the matter
up with HMT. The ONS PSF Bulletin will be updated when the payment has been confirmed by HMT.
27) UKSA Crime event and ONS crime figures
Media line - ONS Head of Crime Statistics, John Flatley, said: “If repeat offences were not capped, there
is a risk that a small number of cases involving multiple attacks on the same person could end up
skewing results, making it very difficult to spot trends in crimes.”
28) Changes to reporting of A&E waiting times
Media line - please refer any calls to UKSA
29) ONS research into prices "web scraping"
Media line - ONS Director General - Data Capability, Heather Savory said: “ONS is always looking into
ways to use new technology to produce data in a more timely and detailed way. This release highlights
one of the many exciting ways ONS can put these new big data technologies into practice.”
30) Labour Market
Media line - "Employment continued to rise and unemployment to fall. This maintains the general trend
since late 2011 to early 2012. Meanwhile, total pay was up 2.7% on the year. The last time the annual
growth rate was that high was in June-August 2011.”
31) Inflation
Media line - "Last month CPI turned negative, mainly because of falling transport fares due to the timing
of Easter. This month, that fall has been reversed. In addition, the falls in food and fuel costs over the last
year have eased this month, helping to push inflation up.” (Phil Gooding)
32) Blue Book
Media line - Blue Book 2014 saw the largest and most complicated set of changes to the UK National
Accounts since 1998, well over 100 improvements were made to bring the Accounts in line with new
international standards (ESA 2010 and BPM6).

It was almost inevitable that there would be a few corrections needed. These two have been
identified by ONS and users have been alerted to them at the earliest opportunity (and likewise the
errors will also be formally corrected at the first opportunity).

Impacts on CP GDP are shown in Annex A but overall impact compared with the Blue Book 2014
package of changes is very small

Why has it taken so long to implement these corrections?



ONS identified issues in these two areas only within the last week or so. Because both corrections
impact on Current Price annual estimates in Supply and Use balanced years it is very difficult to
correct these outside of an annual Blue Book process due to the integrated nature of National
Accounts. Blue Book 2015 is therefore the first opportunity to formally correct these in an orderly
way, but we are alerting users to the direction and magnitude of the revisions at the earliest
opportunity.
Do these impact on the UK GNI contributions?
The narcotics correction will impact on the UK GNI contributions minimally. ONS on 19 May provided
indicative estimates of the complete package of GNI changes, a downward adjustment to GNI of
around £11.9 billion over the period 2002 to 2010. Over this period the narcotics revision will reduce
the UK GNI by a further £3.2 billion, and this revised figure will be submitted to Eurostat as part of the
routine GNI reservation return in September 2015 for use in the EU Budget calculation
33) New estimates of real earnings
Media line - ONS has announced that it will be publishing additional earnings data, using the Consumer
Prices Index to adjust for inflation, to help meet this user need. It will first appear on the next monthly
labour market publication day, 15 July 2015
34) Beta Website
Statement
Today, ONS has released a public beta-version of its developments towards a future site.
This beta remains an experimental test environment and is not the new site. It is designed to inform future
development and is subject to extensive changes.
Feedback can be provided via the clearly visible link and any detail, no matter how small, is valuable to
us. Alternatively, comments can be emailed to web.comments@ons.gov.uk
For continued updates, please see the Digital Publishing Blog: http://digitalpublishing.ons.gov.uk/
Q&A
How much has the beta cost to develop?
The cost to develop and launch the public Beta is £410k. This is less than the Alpha as we have a slightly
smaller Dev team.
What is the next step?
We will continue to do user research and performance testing to inform iterative improvements throughout
the Beta.
When will the new site be launched?
No date has currently been set. We will do so when we are confident that everything has been sufficiently
tested to ensure a successful move to live.
Why is it taking so long?
It isn't. The ONS website is a large, complex website with some unusual challenges and given the issues
faced in the past the team is aware of potential pitfalls. This means that while the team is developing at
pace every stage is being tested and re-tested to ensure it is correct.
35) Quarterly National Accounts
Media line - "The slight upward revision to growth in the first quarter of 2015 is down largely to the
recently announced new methods to measure construction output. The services sector, which accounts
for the lion's share of the economy, is unrevised at 0.4% growth.”
36) Beta Website
Media line - ONS has released a public beta-version of its developments towards a future site. This beta
remains an experimental test environment and is not the new site. It is designed to inform future
development and is subject to extensive changes.
Feedback can be provided via the clearly visible link and any detail, no matter how small, is valuable to
us. Alternatively, comments can be emailed to web.comments@ons.gov.uk
For continued updates, please see the Digital Publishing Blog: http://digitalpublishing.ons.gov.uk/
37) Big data and use of smart meters
Media line - Due to political sensitivity, long time scales and uncertainty on access to data from smart
meters, ONS has decided to conclude its research on smart-type meters. Full details of the research to
date are available in the report published today.
38) ONS and classification of BBC licence fee
Media line - These classification decisions are made solely on the basis of relevant criteria set out in
international standards and in European law. As both the standards and the facts remain unchanged
there would appear to be no basis for amending the decision. (Joe Grice has written to the paper in
those terms)
39) OBR and ONS implementing classification changes in public sector finances.
Media line - "The Public Sector Finances implements classification decisions at the earliest opportunity.
We are aware that the OBR forecast includes some decisions that have not yet been implemented in the
outturn statistics and we are working to incorporate these decisions (for the full time period to which they
apply) in the Public Sector Finances"
[technical note: actually only "£1.4 billion of this £2.5 billion relates to classifications, the other £1.1 billion
relates to a methodology change that will be implemented in September 2015.]
40) Government review of economic statistics ("Bean review")
Media line - All questions on the review to UKSA (see statement below, in FOR INFO). We should only
answer factual questions about specific ONS outputs.
Reactive use only - "ONS is always looking for ways to develop its outputs so that they continue to
provide trusted evidence for decision-makers. Feedback from users of our statistics* plays a vital role in
this and we welcome the additional insight the review will provide."
(* we can refer to CSS results as evidence of this)
41) Bean Review - Financial Times
Media lines - the MRO have context for each of the individual issues raised in the article (eg the ONS's
website. If any calls, please contact MRO)
42) ONS Customer Satisfaction Survey
Media line - "This feedback helps ONS to understand why and how people use our statistics and
analyses and how we can develop them to be more useful. The findings are positive, however we know
we need to do more. We want to continue to find better ways of making our statistics more engaging,
easier to understand and accessible."
Media lines for use on specific issues
Website - We are making good progress to develop a new website. Our Beta site was launched on 10
July 2015.
Technology - We are also working to make much more of our data available in open formats and adopt
methods and systems that keep pace with a fast changing world.
What’s next? - Later this year, ONS will produce an updated response to the survey setting out the
actions we have taken in response to feedback.
Release times - The 0930 release time for official data is laid down in the UK Statistics Code of Practice
and any variation in that will require amendment of the code. That said, ONS constantly reviews its
practices and is exploring the potential for greater flexibility in publication times.
Media engagement - ONS statistics enjoy a very high media profile. We deal with thousands of media
enquiries every year and hold up to nine monthly briefings for journalists on all the key monthly economic
indicators as well as quarterly briefings on topics such as crime and migration. The media are provided
with direct contact details for the senior statistician responsible for each release and ONS spokespeople
appear regularly on radio and television to discuss their outputs.