Health
Cabinet Office
Chris Ruane (Vale of Clwyd, Labour)
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office
(1) if he will publish the location of the 175 evidence gathering events that the Office for National Statistics held in developing the measurement of well-being;
(2) with which policymakers and academics the Office for National Statistics has collaborated with in developing a measure of well-being;
(3) what international collaboration the Office for National Statistics has developed on the subject of well-being;
(4) what recent assessment he has made of trends on well-being at work.
Nick Hurd (Parliamentary Secretary (Civil Society), Cabinet Office; Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, Conservative)
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Glen Watson, dated
As Director-General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Questions asking the Minister for the Cabinet Office to provide further details relating to work of the Measuring National Well-being (MNW) Programme. Each of your questions is answered separately, combining the questions on collaboration.
1. To ask the Minister for the Cabinet, if he will publish the location of the 175 evidence gathering events that the Office for National Statistics held in developing the measurement of well-being (141418).
Information pertaining to the location and nature of the 175 events during the Measuring National Well-being National Debate were published on the Office for National Statistics website in July 2011. This information can be found in Annex A of the ‘Findings from the National Well-being Debate—July 2011’ report at:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/user-guidance/well-being/publications/index.html
2. To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with which policymakers and academics the Office for National Statistics has collaborated with in developing a measure of well-being. (141419) and To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what international collaboration the Office for National Statistics has developed on the subject of well-being (141420)
The Measuring National Well-being Programme has collaborated with policy makers, academics and the international stakeholders from the start of the programme in November 2010.
The development of well-being measures has been discussed at engagements with policy makers through two groups: the ‘Well-being Policy Steering Group’ (hosted by Cabinet Office) of which the National Statistician is a member and the ‘Social Impacts Task Force’ (hosted by HM Treasury) of which the Deputy Programme Director is a member.
In early 2011 the Programme Director and the Programme Sponsor (the National Statistician) convened two advisory groups: the ‘MNW Advisory Forum’ and the ‘MNW Advisory Group’. The membership of these groups includes academics, policy makers, international stakeholders, third sector, other government departments and think tanks. These groups have provided advice and technical expertise to aid the delivery of measures and methodological approaches. Membership details for these groups can be found at:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/user-guidance/well-being/advisory-groups/index.html
The Programme has collaborated heavily with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) who are driving forward the measurement of progress across the European Union and further afield. In addition, the Programme has collaboratedclosely with Eurostat (i.e. Expert Group on ‘Quality of Life’) and UN SEEA Ecosystem Accounting Group in taking forward the well-being and environmental agendas.
3. To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment he has made of trends on wellbeing at work (141518)
The Measuring National Well-being Programme has not carried out any assessment of trends on well-being at work to date.
Due to the size of this document it will be stored in the Library of the House.