Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2021 to Question 145062, for what reason data is not available on levels of employment in the voluntary and community sector.
Employment data for the voluntary and community sector is currently collected and published quarterly. Due to existing survey and reporting requirements, there is currently a 3 month lag between publication and the reference period. VCSE organisations are not easily identifiable in other, more timely data sources such as ONS BICS due to the way industries are categorised under the current Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes. The most recent employment estimates for the sector cover the period October 2019 - September 2020 and was published in January 2021. Existing official estimates for the sector also do not specifically cover jobs lost due to COVID and instead are intended to provide an overall stock figure for employment within the sector.