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.

Emma Rourke | Acting National Statistician

Lord Jackson of Peterborough

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

30 September 2025

Dear Lord Jackson,

As Acting National Statistician, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking whether income levels affect socio-economic classifications and, therefore, whether train drivers earning £80,000 per year should be classed as working class under State of the Nation 2024: Local to national, mapping opportunities for all, published by the Social Mobility Commission in September 2024; and what assessment the Office for National Statistics has made of the classification of train drivers under the national statistics socio-economic classifications (HL10733).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) does not incorporate income in the methodology or derivation of the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC).

The ONS classifies Train Drivers to the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) 2020 code 8231, which corresponds to " Train and tram drivers”. Under the simplified NS-SEC framework, this occupation is classified as analytic class 5: Lower supervisory and technical occupations.

There are 8 analytic classes in the NS-SEC used by the ONS:

· Higher managerial, administrative and professional occupation

· Lower managerial, administrative and professional occupations

· Intermediate occupations

· Small employers and own account workers

· Lower supervisory and technical occupations

· Semi-routine occupations

· Routine occupations

· Never worked, unemployed, and not elsewhere classified

The Social Mobility Commission groups these into 5 categories: ‘higher professional and managerial’, ‘lower professional and managerial’, ‘intermediate’, ‘higher working class’, and ‘lower working class’.

Yours sincerely,

Emma Rourke

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

A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 11th June is attached.

Dear Lord Jackson,

As Acting National Statistician, I am responding to your Parliamentary Questions asking what steps are being taken to expedite the timely publication of marriage and divorce statistics by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) (HL8355), and what assessment has been made of the potential impacts of the declining marriage rate and birth rate in the United Kingdom (HL8356).

The latest published statistics on marriages[1] and divorces[2] in England and Wales are for 2022. Divorces and Dissolutions in England and Wales, 2023[3] will be published on 2 July 2025. Marriages in England and Wales, 2023[4] is provisionally scheduled for publication in November 2025, alongside Civil partnerships in England and Wales, 2023[5].

The Marriages, Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration Etc.) Act 2019 (which came into force on 4 May 2021) has resulted in a new electronic registration system replacing the paper marriage register. This has improved the timeliness of the submission of religious marriage entries to the General Register Office (GRO) who in turn supply these to the ONS. Following this change to the way marriages are recorded, the ONS have been working to improve the timeliness of publication of marriage statistics and to consolidate the release of marriage and civil partnership statistics to improve accessibility for users and to bring the reference periods in line.

Marriage, civil partnership and divorce statistics incorporate rates as part of the publication; these rates use population estimates by marital status[6] as denominators so these estimates need to be available prior to calculation. The ONS aims to balance the need for timely legal partnership statistics with the timing of publication, and revisions to, population estimates by marital status in order to provide the most accurate rates possible. Estimates for 2023 and 2024 are provisionally scheduled to be published in November 2025.

The ONS does not assess the potential impacts of the declining marriage rate and birth rate in the United Kingdom.

However, in our National Population Projections[7] we analyse past trends in fertility rates to produce a projection of future fertility for the UK. These projections are widely used to support policy making. The numbers of people in each life stage are important when considering dependency ratios, which inform government financial planning. A common measure is the old-age-dependency ratio (OADR), which is the number of people of pensionable age for every 1,000 people of working age. It is projected that OADR for the UK will increase from 278 in mid-2022 to 289 in mid-2032, reaching 302 by mid-2047.

The ONS has published a UK population projection explorer tool[8] which allows users to vary the assumptions for future fertility, net migration and life expectancy to see the impact on the size and age structure of the UK population over the next 50 years.

The ONS publishes marriage and divorce statistics for England and Wales only. National Records for Scotland (NRS)[9] and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA[10]) are responsible for the publication of marriage and divorce statistics for Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively.

Yours sincerely,

Emma Rourke

[1] Marriages in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics

[2] Divorces in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics

[3] Divorces and Dissolutions in England and Wales: 2023 - Office for National Statistics

[4] Marriages in England and Wales: 2023 - Office for National Statistics

[5] Civil partnerships in England and Wales: 2023 - Office for National Statistics

[6] Population estimates by marital status and living arrangements, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics

[7] National population projections - Office for National Statistics

[8] UK population projection explorer - Office for National Statistics

[9] National Records of Scotland (NRS)

[10] Home | Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency

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

A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 11th June is attached.

Dear Lord Jackson,

As Acting National Statistician, I am responding to your Parliamentary Questions asking what steps are being taken to expedite the timely publication of marriage and divorce statistics by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) (HL8355), and what assessment has been made of the potential impacts of the declining marriage rate and birth rate in the United Kingdom (HL8356).

The latest published statistics on marriages[1] and divorces[2] in England and Wales are for 2022. Divorces and Dissolutions in England and Wales, 2023[3] will be published on 2 July 2025. Marriages in England and Wales, 2023[4] is provisionally scheduled for publication in November 2025, alongside Civil partnerships in England and Wales, 2023[5].

The Marriages, Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration Etc.) Act 2019 (which came into force on 4 May 2021) has resulted in a new electronic registration system replacing the paper marriage register. This has improved the timeliness of the submission of religious marriage entries to the General Register Office (GRO) who in turn supply these to the ONS. Following this change to the way marriages are recorded, the ONS have been working to improve the timeliness of publication of marriage statistics and to consolidate the release of marriage and civil partnership statistics to improve accessibility for users and to bring the reference periods in line.

Marriage, civil partnership and divorce statistics incorporate rates as part of the publication; these rates use population estimates by marital status[6] as denominators so these estimates need to be available prior to calculation. The ONS aims to balance the need for timely legal partnership statistics with the timing of publication, and revisions to, population estimates by marital status in order to provide the most accurate rates possible. Estimates for 2023 and 2024 are provisionally scheduled to be published in November 2025.

The ONS does not assess the potential impacts of the declining marriage rate and birth rate in the United Kingdom.

However, in our National Population Projections[7] we analyse past trends in fertility rates to produce a projection of future fertility for the UK. These projections are widely used to support policy making. The numbers of people in each life stage are important when considering dependency ratios, which inform government financial planning. A common measure is the old-age-dependency ratio (OADR), which is the number of people of pensionable age for every 1,000 people of working age. It is projected that OADR for the UK will increase from 278 in mid-2022 to 289 in mid-2032, reaching 302 by mid-2047.

The ONS has published a UK population projection explorer tool[8] which allows users to vary the assumptions for future fertility, net migration and life expectancy to see the impact on the size and age structure of the UK population over the next 50 years.

The ONS publishes marriage and divorce statistics for England and Wales only. National Records for Scotland (NRS)[9] and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA[10]) are responsible for the publication of marriage and divorce statistics for Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively.

Yours sincerely,

Emma Rourke

[1] Marriages in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics

[2] Divorces in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics

[3] Divorces and Dissolutions in England and Wales: 2023 - Office for National Statistics

[4] Marriages in England and Wales: 2023 - Office for National Statistics

[5] Civil partnerships in England and Wales: 2023 - Office for National Statistics

[6] Population estimates by marital status and living arrangements, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics

[7] National population projections - Office for National Statistics

[8] UK population projection explorer - Office for National Statistics

[9] National Records of Scotland (NRS)

[10] Home | Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency

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.

Professor Sir Ian Diamond | National Statistician

The Lord Jackson of Peterborough

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

8 April 2025

Dear Lord Jackson,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what assessment has been made of the finding in the independent report published on 19 March, Independent review of data, statistics and research on sex and gender, by Professor Alice Sullivan, that there is a 'partisan climate on certain issues, including gender' within the Office for National Statistics (ONS) (HL6248).

The ONS has a long history of engagement with a wide range of stakeholders on all the census questions. We listen impartially and objectively to all voices to safeguard the production of official statistics that serve the public good in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics[1].

We welcome the Independent review of data, statistics and research on sex and gender and are reviewing the findings in detail. We are committed to working with others to improve the comparability, consistency, and coherence of government statistics. This year, the Government Statistical Service (GSS) is holding a series of regional listening events to inform ongoing work on the topics of sex and gender identity.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

[1]https://code.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/