The Home Office does not hold a comprehensive list of the occupations for which individuals have been arrested for illegal working but the focus of recent enforcement work has included car washes, nail bars, construction sites ad takeaway restaurants.

Ministry of Defence (MOD) Non-Standard Occupational Groups (NSOG) are groups of staff for whom some aspects of their terms and conditions of service are different from the MOD broader-banded grade structure as aligned to civil service standard grades i.e. the core civilian workforce in Defence. NSOG groups are distinguished because they have an analogue link to an outside counterpart and their pay and other terms and conditions of service are either directly linked or influenced by their outside public sector comparator grade.

The MOD has five main NSOG groups:

1. Ministry of Defence Police
2. MOD clinical grades - NHS Agenda for Change grades, NHS Civilian Consultants, Civilian Medical Practitioner (doctors), Civilian Dental Practitioners (dentists)
3. Defence Fire Rescue Service grades
4. Teaching/educational grades
5. Youth and Community grades

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.

Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

04 April 2024

Dear Lord Elliott of Mickle Fell,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking when the Office for National Statistics (ONS) plans to begin publishing data classifying jobs in the labour market based on the new six-digit Extended Standard Occupational Classification 2020 framework rather than the current four-digit Standard Occupational Classification 2020 framework (HL3670).

The ONS collects information on the labour market status of individuals through the Labour Force Survey (LFS), which is a survey of people resident in households in the UK. In addition to their labour market status, working respondents provide a description of their job allowing us to classify their occupation to the appropriate Standard Occupational Classification 2020 (SOC2020) code.

Similarly, the 2021 Census collected information allowing us to identify the labour market status of individuals and classify their occupation in line with SOC2020.

Much of the job information from these sources, collected from respondents, do not contain sufficient detail to give an accurate coding at the six-digit lower-level classification. Consequently, the ONS currently has no plans to publish data at the six-digit SOC2020 level.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

His Majesty’s Passport Office policy on who can act as a referee is kept under review as part of the general programme of work to transform and modernise the passport application process. Any changes to the policy would be announced to Parliament and reflected in published HM Passport Office guidance.

The list of recognised professions can be found online. This is not a definitive list, and any alternatives a customer provides must be considered. Countersigning passport applications and photos: Accepted occupations for countersignatories - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

The Government is considering its position on the topic of legal migration following the Office for National Statistics’ November publication of net migration estimates and in line with its manifesto commitments to bring overall numbers down. We will be setting out information on the Shortage Occupation List review shortly.

The Government is considering its position on the topic of legal migration following the Office for National Statistics’ November publication of net migration estimates and in line with its manifesto commitments to bring overall numbers down. We will be setting out information on the Shortage Occupation List review shortly.

The Government is considering its position on the topic of legal migration following the Office for National Statistics’ November publication of net migration estimates and in line with its manifesto commitments to bring overall numbers down. We will be setting out information on the Shortage Occupation List review shortly.

The Government has commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee to review the Shortage Occupation List, however the review is currently paused.

The Home Office is working closely with the Migration Advisory Committee in considering their workplan, in light of other migration issues.

A list of jobs on the current Shortage Occupation Lists can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/skilled-worker-visa-shortage-occupations/skilled-worker-visa-shortage-occupations.

A list of previous occupations that were on the Shortage Occupation List can be found here: https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukgwa/20201130214130/https:/www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-appendix-k-shortage-occupation-list.

The Declaration on Government Reform and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, 2022-2025, commits the Government to drawing on talent from all backgrounds. Representation is increasing and whilst this trend is positive, we remain committed to improving representation across the broadest range of diversity across our workforce and in particular at our most senior grades.

To build on the progress made over recent years and target where improvement is still needed, the Government will take a holistic approach to SCS recruitment to identify and remove barriers to underrepresented groups entering and progressing in the SCS. There are a number of initiatives aimed at supporting colleagues to reach the Senior Civil Service from a diverse range of backgrounds including the Civil Service Fast Stream, Future Leaders Scheme and Senior Leaders Scheme.

Information on the diversity of the Senior Civil Service for 2022, sourced from the SCS Database, is not yet available. In responding to these PQs we have, therefore, used the latest available finalised annual SCS Database which is as at 1 April 2021.

All figures are a percentage of only those SCS that have made a positive declaration (i.e. they do not include prefer not to say, not known or not applicable responses in the denominator).

SCS by ethnicity, as at 1 April 2021

SCS by age, as at 1 April 2021

SCS by sex, as at 1 April 2021

The SCS Database currently only captures data on the sex of individuals. As at 1 April 2021, 47.3% of SCS members, where sex has been provided, were reported as women, with 52.7% reported as men. At present, data is not collected in the SCS database on gender.

Entry year to the Civil Service for SCS, as at 1 April 2021

SCS who were members of the Fast Stream, as of 1 April 2021

As at 1 April 2021, 20.4% of SCS members, where Fast Stream status has been provided, responded that they were successful in the Central Fast Stream selection process. This figure will also include members that were successful in applying to the Central Fast Stream after their initial entry to the Civil Service.

SCS holding university degrees, as of 1 April 2021

As at 1 April 2021, 11.2% of SCS, where degree status is known, did not have a university degree.

For those with a degree, where degree status and University is known:

• 80.1% did not obtain their first degree at Oxford or Cambridge University,

• 63.1% did not obtain their first degree at a non-oxbridge Russell Group university, and

• 56.8% did not obtain their first degree at a non-Russell Group UK university, and

• 98.0% did not obtain their first degree at a non-UK university.

SCS by socio-economic background, as of 1 April 2021

Response rates in the SCS Database to questions relating to Socio Economic Background are currently below acceptable quality thresholds. It is therefore not possible to provide data on SCS by :

• Self-declared socio-economic background;

• Formal educational qualification of parents;

• Type of secondary school attended;

• Parental occupation; and

• Eligibility for free school meals.