HL Deb 22 January 1998 vol 584 cc259-60WA
Lord Kennet

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Further to the Written Answer by Lord McIntosh of Haringey on 5 November (WA 295) in relation to the work currently being done in the Office of National Statistics on economically significant unpaid work, whether they are content to use as a definition of "working":

"All those who are

  1. (1) employees,
  2. (2) self-employed,
  3. (3) employees temporarily not at work, or
  4. (4) those in work-related government training";

and of "not working" (Written Answer by Mr. Keith Bradley on 10 December (HC Deb. WA 600) those who are:

  1. "(1) unemployed or
  2. (2) inactive"

and, if so, what is their definition of the word "inactive", and whether it includes mothers looking after small children and other carers caring for their families. [HL39]

Lord McIntosh of Haringey

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Chief Executive of the Office for National Statistics who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter to Lord Kennet from the Director of the Office for National Statistics, Dr. Tim Holt, dated 22 January 1998.

I have been asked to reply, as Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), to your recent question on the definitions of working used in analyses recently undertaken in relation to time use.

The internationally standard International Labour Organisation (ILO) categories of economic activity which are generally used by ONS are defined as follows:

Employed: people aged 16 or over who did some paid work for more than one hour, those who had a job that they were temporarily away from (on holiday for example); those on government-supported training and employment programmes; and those doing unpaid work for a family business.
ILO unemployed: people without a job who were available to start work in two weeks and who had either looked for work in the previous four weeks or who were waiting to start a job they had already obtained.

"Economically active" people are those who are either employed or ILO unemployed.

Economically inactive: people who are neither in employment nor ILO unemployed (which might include mothers looking after small children and other carers caring for their families if they were neither doing paid work nor were ILO unemployed).

The exploratory work currently being undertaken by ONS on time use, recently reported on the amount of paid and unpaid work. The results of this are based on a range of activities undertaken by all respondents over a 24 hour period, divided into 15 minute slots. The respondents were selected to be representative of society at large and will have included both economically active and inactive individuals.

The results in terms of time spent on paid and unpaid work refer to the complete sample. Within this sample mothers with young children, and carers caring for other family members typically registered a range of paid and unpaid activities during the day.

Proposals are currently being developed for a major time use survey to be undertaken, which would enable a more detailed assessment of the scale and nature of unpaid work.