Stephen Timms – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2014-03-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect (a) generally and (b) on ease of comparisons with previous years of collecting work-related ill-health data through the Labour Force Survey biennially instead of annually.

Mike Penning

Experience from collecting work-related ill health data through the Labour Force Survey from 2003/04 to 2011/12 indicated that figures rarely changed significantly year-on-year. The main value in the data is in comparisons over longer time periods and in combining survey years to look at detailed sub-populations.

Work-related ill health data for 2013/14 has been collated and will be published in the autumn.