Select Committee on Treasury Minutes of Evidence


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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