The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.

The Rt Hon. the Lord Redwood

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

28 April 2026

As Permanent Secretary of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking how many jobs have been lost in the last year in the oil, gas, petrochemicals, refining and general chemical sectors (HL16637).

In December 2025, in the UK, there were an estimated 10,000 workforce jobs1 in the mining of coal and lignite; extraction of crude petrol/gas sector (standard industrial classification (SIC) divisions 05-06), a decrease of 2,000 compared with December 2024.

In December 2025, in the UK, there were an estimated 8,000 workforce jobs1 in the manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products sector (standard industrial classification (SIC) division 19), a decrease of 2,000 compared with December 2024.

In December 2025, in the UK, there were 99,000 workforce jobs2 in the manufacture of chemicals and chemical products sector (standard industrial classification (SIC) division 20), an increase of 2,000 compared with December 2024.

A full time series of data can be found in Table 1. Please note that these data are not

seasonally adjusted.

Table 1: Number of workforce jobs3 in the manufacture of motor vehicles, trailers and

semi-trailers sector, UK, not seasonally adjusted.

Source: Office for National Statistics

These data are published quarterly in tables JOBS03: Employee jobs by industry4 and JOBS04: Self-employment jobs by industry5. The most recent data, up to December 2025, were published as part of our Vacancies and jobs in the UK: March 20266 bulletin, which was published on 19 March 2026.

Yours sincerely,

Darren Tierney

1Estimates of workforce jobs include employee jobs and self-employment jobs only, these estimates

exclude any government supported trainees in these sectors.

2 Estimates are presented to the nearest 1,000 and changes have been calculated on rounded

estimates.

3 Estimates of workforce jobs include employee jobs and self-employment jobs only, these estimates

exclude any government supported trainees in these sectors.

4https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/d

atasets/employeejobsbyindustryjobs03

5https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/d

atasets/selfemploymentjobsbyindustryjobs04

6https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/b

ulletins/jobsandvacanciesintheuk/march2026

In the last two years the Department for Work and Pensions has not made any employees compulsorily redundant. Two employees at senior civil service level have been issued with notice of redundancy and are due to leave the Department on 31 July 2012.

In addition, a number of employees have accepted release on voluntary redundancy terms as follows:

Six senior civil servants left the Department on voluntary redundancy (VR) terms on 31 March 2012.

The following numbers of staff have accepted VR terms and are due to leave the Department on the respective last day of service as shown:

178 employees at the Administrative Assistant to Senior Executive Officer grades will leave the Department on 31 May 2012;

One employee at Grade 6 level and two at Grade 7 level will leave the Department on 30 June 2012

Two employees at Senior Executive Officer and two employees at Higher Executive Officer level will leave the department on 31 July 2012.

To serve as context, the Department employed 97,963 full-time equivalent staff on 31 March 2011 and 88,626 full-time equivalent staff on 31 March 2012.

In 2010-11 a total of 10,775 full-time equivalent staff left the Department and in 2011-12 a total of 9,436 full-time equivalent staff left the Department.

The Department has to make cost savings to live within budgetary control totals over the course of the spending review, and reducing staffing levels is only one element of achieving this. Consistent with the Government's focus on reducing back office costs, DEFRA's approach has been first to identify savings from non-staff areas (such as estates), before then considering the need for staff reductions. Core DEFRA has released some 300 people, either on voluntary exit or on voluntary redundancy in the last two years, following redesign work to show where reductions were needed. There were two compulsory redundancies in core DEFRA in the last two financial years (2010-11 and 2011-12).

977 staff left the Department for Communities and Local Government in the period 1 May 2010 to 1 May 2012. They did so for a variety of reasons including redundancy, retirement, resignation, transfer and early exit.

Of these, 466 were made redundant, seven on a compulsory basis. All others left on a voluntary basis.

Additionally, 765 staff were made redundant from the Government Offices for the Regions, 192 were employed by the Department. Of those 765 staff that were made redundant, 154 were made redundant on a compulsory basis, 58 of which were employed by the Department.

As part of the spending review settlement, the DCLG Group is making a collective 33% real terms saving against its running costs by 2014-15. This equates to savings of over £200 million by 2014-15. In addition, the Department will save a further £190 million from the closure of the Government Offices for the Regions, taking overall savings on administrative running costs to 42% across the DCLG Group by 2014-15. These savings reflect the coalition Government's agenda of decentralisation, ending the micromanagement of local government, the abolition of regional government, and the broader need to tackle the deficit left by the last Administration.

In the last two years one employee has been made redundant. A total of 221 staff have left the Foreign and Commonwealth Office under various voluntary exit schemes launched within the last two financial years.

In respect of Ministry of Defence (MOD) civil servants, paid release is used as part of normal work force management. Voluntary terms are offered in order to reduce surplus staffing levels and, ultimately, as a means of avoiding or minimising compulsory redundancies. The numbers of MOD civil servants leaving over the last two years reflect the MOD's need to reduce civilian headcount in response to the strategic defence and security review and other work to balance the Defence budget. The following table shows

the total numbers of paid releases (both voluntary release and redundancy) over the last two financial years within the Ministry of Defence and its trading funds.

The last two years of published information on redundancies and other paid departures in the Cabinet Office are available in the Cabinet Office report and accounts for 2009-10 and 2010-11 on the Cabinet Office website at:

http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/cabinet-office-annual-reports-and-accounts

Audited figures for the number of redundancies and other paid departures during 2011-12 are not yet available but will be published in the Cabinet Office report and accounts 2011-12.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) ran a voluntary exit scheme in September-October 2010, under which 330 staff left the Department.

In February 2011 the Department launched a redundancy scheme which resulted in a further 259 staff leaving. 242 of these staff left on voluntary redundancy terms while the remaining 17 were made compulsory redundant.

The payments were all made in accordance with the Civil Service Compensation Scheme rules that are administered by the Cabinet Office.

The Department ran an early release scheme in September 2010 and under this scheme, 72 employees left in the last two years. A similar scheme was launched in January 2012 which will result in a total of 36 employees leaving by 31 March 2013.

Details of HM Treasury recruitments and redundancies for 2010-11 were published in its latest Annual Report and Accounts (HC 984). Figures for 2011-12 will be published in the coming months.

The number of departmental staff who have accepted redundancy terms in the last two years have been fewer than five. It is the Treasury's policy for reasons of confidentiality not to release full details relating to numbers of staff fewer than five, where to do so might lead to the identification of individual cases.

DFID has only made one member of staff compulsorily redundant within the last two financial years. There have been 58 voluntary redundancies during this period. All of these departures were made in line with the terms of the Civil Service Compensation scheme applicable at the time.

In the last two years (1 April 2010 to 31 March 2012) 26 Home Office employees have been made compulsorily redundant.

The Department has not made any staff redundant in the last two years but has agreed voluntary early releases.

There have been 73 redundancies for the period 1 April 2010 to 31 March 2012. This figure does not include civil servants who have been offered early departure under the Ministry's ongoing voluntary early departure scheme, which provides the same terms as voluntary redundancy under the Civil Service Compensation Scheme 2010.

The Department has made fewer than five permanent employees redundant in the last two years. As part of departmental restructuring and 'downsizing', 278 permanent staff have left the Department over the last two years on voluntary exits.

Over the last two years, surplus staff have been redeployed where possible, and there were eight voluntary redundancies.

In 2011-12, fewer than five employees from the Department for Transport (Centre) were made compulsorily redundant. No staff from the Department's agencies (Driving Standards Agency, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, Maritime and Coastguard Agency, Highways Agency, Vehicle Certification Agency, Vehicle and Operator Services Agency and Government Car and Dispatch Agency) have been made compulsorily redundant. Additionally in 2011-12, 208 staff left the Department, including agencies, under voluntary redundancy schemes.

In the previous financial year (2010-11) no employees were made compulsorily redundant, although 248 employees left the Department, including agencies, under voluntary redundancy schemes.