The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

Letter from Glen Watson, Director General for ONS, to Lord Marlesford, dated July 2012.

As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Questions asking i) how many people in the United Kingdom are (1) employed. and (2) self-employed

HL1590 and ii) how many people in the United Kingdom (1) over 65, (2) over 70, (3) over 75, and (4) over 80, are (a) employed. and (b) self-employed. HL1591

The table attached shows Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates for the period January to March 2013. The estimates for the total number of people employed and self-employed are published in the monthly Labour Market Statistical Bulletin and are provided both on a seasonally adjusted and non-seasonally adjusted basis. The age group breakdowns are only available on a non-seasonally adjusted basis

Estimates of people aged 80 and over are not available. however due to being of insufficient quality as a result of the small sample size.

As with any sample survey. estimates from the LFS are subject to a margin of uncertainty. Indications of the quality of the estimates provided are given in the table.

Source: Labour Force Survey (LFS)

Estimates by age are not mutually exclusive

- Estimates are considered too unreliable for practical purposes¹ Includes, in addition to employees & self-employed, unpaid family workers & those on government supported training & employment programmes who are under 65.

Guide to Quality:

The Coefficient of Variation (CV) indicates the quality of an estimate, the smaller the CV value the higher the quality. The true value is likely to lie within +/- twice the CV - for example, for an estimate of 200 with a CV of 5% we would expect the population total to be within the range 180-220.