Asked by: Baroness Fookes (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of unfilled vacancies for horticultural jobs at the latest date for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the noble Baroness’ Parliamentary Question of 21 June is below and attached.
Letter from the National Statistician
Professor Sir Ian Diamond | National Statistician
27 June 2022
Dear Lady Fookes,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what estimate has been made of the number of unfilled vacancies for horticultural jobs at the latest date for which figures are available (HL1150).
The Office for National Statistics produces statistics on vacancies as part of the Vacancies and Jobs statistical publication [1]. Within this publication, vacancy estimates are produced by industry [2], according to the Standard Industrial Classification 2007. Horticultural business are not specifically identified in one area of the classification, but are spread across multiple areas.
Unfortunately, with the data available it is not possible to provide estimates of the number of vacancies held by horticultural businesses.
There are broadly two reasons for this. Firstly, the vacancy survey excludes businesses within the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing industry where some horticultural businesses are likely to be classified. This industry is excluded due to the disproportionate costs involved as it mainly consists of very small businesses with few vacancies.
Secondly, other horticultural businesses could only be identified at highly detailed levels of the classification, levels at which the survey cannot produce reliable estimates given its overall sample size.
However, we are currently exploring the use of online job advert data to provide better insights into labour demand by occupation, and we are hoping to publish these insights later this year.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond