Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 11 January 2022 to Question 98884, on Employment, whether it is her policy to include the self-employed in the calculation of the total number of people in employment; and what comparative estimate she has made of the total number of people in employment when calculated (a) with and (b) without the number of self-employed (i) as of 17 January 2022 and (ii) before the covid-19 outbreak.

The answer of 11 January 2022 to question 98884 referred to the payroll employment measure of people in work.

The payroll employment measure is the timeliest labour market measure of people in work, derived from Real Time Information employers submit to the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) system. Further explanation of this measure is available at: Comparison of labour market data sources - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)