Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 28 April 2025 to Question 46097 on General Practitioners: Pay, what the difference is between the (a) New Earnings Survey and (b) Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.

The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) replaced the New Earnings Survey (NES) in 2004. A number of methodological improvements were introduced in the ASHE to address weaknesses in the design of the NES. Key changes included the introduction of the weighting of survey results to population totals using information from the Labour Force Survey, changes to sampling processes to improve coverage, and the introduction of imputation for item non-response. Further information can be found in the Methodology for the 2004 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings technical report, a copy of which is attached.