Memorandum by HM Treasury
TRANSITIONAL ARRANGEMENTS
BETWEEN DR
HOLT'S
DEPARTURE AND
LEN COOK'S
ARRIVAL
Dr Holt will be stepping down from his post
as Director of ONS and Head of the Government Statistical Service
at the end of March. Len Cook is scheduled to take up his new
appointment as the first National Statistician towards the end
of May. The following interim arrangements will take effect from
1 April until Len Cook takes up his appointment:
Alan Goldsmith will be designated
as the acting Accounting Officer for the ONS;
Isobel MacDonald-Davies will be appointed
as interim Registrar General and will have the necessary statutory
powers;
John Pullinger and John Kidgell will
continue to have full responsibility within their Statistics Directorates
and will assume any of the Director's responsibilities that relate
to GSS/National Statistics in their field. On general matters
they, together with Alan Goldsmith will work together and agree
any allocation of responsibilities that arise as needed;
Alan Goldsmith will chair ONS Executive
Committee and Policy Board meetings. He will also chair the ONS
Review Steering Committee;
John Kidgell will chair any GSS Heads
of Profession meetings if required, and will represent the UK
at the SPC meetings. John Pullinger will lead the UK delegation
to the Commonwealth Statistics Conference.
FUNCTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS
REPLACING THE
STATISTICS ADVISORY
COMMITTEE
The GSS has two different kinds of group to
deliver effective advice and consultation. There are Advisory
Groups, which are set up by the department involved inviting selected
people to give advice, and there are Users' Groups, which are
set up either by users or by departments on users' behalf but
which are independent of departments. Many of the Users' Groups
are affiliated to the Statistics Users Council, and some to other
bodies as well.
The publication Official Statistics: Governance
and Consultation describes all of the Advisory Groups and
Users' Groups that existed as at July 1998. With the exception
of the Statistics Advisory Committee (SAC) itself, the status
of these groups remains more or less unchanged from that time
(ie nearly 40 advisory committees and 10 Users' Groups). Indeed,
the number of official Users' Groups has actually increased since
then, with the formation of three new ones: the Financial Statistics
Users' Group, the Inter-Governmental Statisticians Group and the
Gender Statistics Users' Group. In addition, the ONS has set up
a liaison group with the Royal Statistical Society.
The SAC was wound up last year in anticipation
of the new arrangements set out in the White Paper. Unfortunately
this has taken longer than expected. However, the vast majority
of user consultation mechanisms have remained in place and the
GSS will continue to use these, or even set up specific ad-hoc
advisory groups if required, to ensure the level of consultation
is maintained during this transitional period.
THE BASIS
FOR USING
A MULTIPLICATION
FACTOR OF
THREE TIMES
THE NUMBER
OF REPORTED
VACANCIES
Vacancies notified to and placings made by jobcentres
do not represent the total number of vacancies/engagements in
the economy. Rough estimates suggest that about a third of all
vacancies nationally are notified to jobcentres; and that about
a quarter of all engagements are made through them. These estimates
are based on occasional surveys of employers, all of these have
been broadly consistent in indicating an Employment Service market
share for vacancies ranging around one third.
The Labour Force Survey provides some supporting
evidence for these estimates. Over the year to autumn 1999 an
analysis of those who had been in post for up to three months,
in each quarter, suggests placings by jobcentres accounted for
one quarter of engagements. This is not a precise comparison as
some people will have started with a new employer more than once
within those three months, or may have ended employment within
the three months. On the other hand, some job engagements might
not strictly involve a vacancy being generally available.
APPARENT SHARP
RISE IN
THE NORTH
EAST VACANCY
TOTAL OVER
1999
The number of recorded vacancies has increased
considerably since spring 1999. This is likely to be associated
with the introduction of a call centre which, since April 1999,
has been taking all the vacancies notified by employers in the
region. This change in practice is likely to have had some effect
on the recorded numbers of vacancies in the North East. Some of
the increase may have been due to an improvement in the Employment
Service market share (of vacancy recording) as well as general
economic factors. We cannot determine the precise effects.
JOBCENTRE VACANCIES:
RESPONSE TO
POINTS RAISED
BY GREATER
MANCHESTER LOW
PAY UNIT
IN THEIR
RECENT REPORT
The report suggests, that ONS is
no longer publishing the local jobcentre vacancy statistics;
ONS recognise difficulties with the
coverage of some of the local figures. For example, some local
figures have been affected by the introduction of "Central
Vacancy Taking" by the Employment Service whereby one office
may take all vacancies for an area notified by employers;
For this reason, in June 1999 ONS
ceased to publish the vacancy figures for individual jobcentres
in the regional press releases only;
All the figures continue to be available
to those who request them and are widely available via the Nomis
database;
While there are some problems with
the geographical allocation of some of the local vacancy figures,
these do not imply problems with the national vacancy figures
as the Low Pay Unit suggests;
Despite well-known limitations and
incomplete coverage, the jobcentre vacancy figures still provide
a useful measure for analysis;
The report makes spurious comparisons
between the number of vacancies on display at Jobcentres and the
numbers of vacancies recorded in the statistics, suggesting that
discrepancies must mean there is something wrong with the statistics;
There is no reason why the vacancies
on display should match up in the way that the Low Pay Unit researchers
expect. Jobcentres do not have to display all the vacancies they
hold and in many cases a single card on display may represent
a number of vacancies of similar type;
The difference observed between 1999
and earlier years has been affected by action taken by Jobcentres
in 1998, following an investigation (mystery shopping), to ensure
that old vacancies which are filled or cancelled are removed as
soon as possible from display boards. This will have tended to
reduce the ratio of displayed to reported vacancies in all areas;
The allegation of duplication of
armed forces vacancies in the statistics is misplaced. Armed forces
vacancies are dealt with as a special case with some 40 nominated
Jobcentres throughout the country dealing with the vacancies notified
by their local armed forces careers office. There are often a
large number of vacancies of the same type as each single one
displayed. There may be some duplications in the displays as many
of these will appear in more than one jobcentre since each of
the 40 jobcentres shares information with others. But there is
no problem at all of overcounting in the statistics which are
obtained from the computer records.
9 March 2000
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