Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Welsh Language – in the Senedd at 1:38 pm on 1 May 2024.
Jeremy Miles
Labour
1:38,
1 May 2024
I think that the Member is absolutely right to say that, if you look at the situation that the ONS finds itself in over recent years, for each of the last two years, its cash funding has fallen, and it looks to a further reduction, in nominal terms, in its budget between the last financial year and the one that we are in now. So, these are challenging circumstances, I think, in which the ONS has to work, and we look to it to meet the needs of Wales, so that it can support the work that we do as a Government.
As the Member says, it has been undertaking a programme of transformation. We do look forward to the renewed data sets that will become available, because they are so essential. Welsh Government officials are working very closely and collaboratively with the ONS, and Members will have seen what the chief statistician has had to say about the quality of the data recently. But I think it goes without saying that an ONS that was properly funded and had access to the kinds of resources that we would wish it to see would be able to better discharge the responsibilities that I know the chief statistician is keen that they should be able to as well.
The language of Wales spoken by around 25% of the population. It is an Indo-European language and belongs to the Celtic group. It was made "offical" in Wales by the Welsh Language Act 1993. It is known in Welsh as Cymraeg.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is a quarterly sample survey of households living at private addresses in Great Britain. Its purpose is to provide information on the UK labour market that can then be used to develop, manage, evaluate and report on labour market policies. The questionnaire design, sample selection, and interviewing are carried out by the Social and Vital Statistics Division of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on behalf of the Statistical Outputs Group of the ONS.
More details: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/Source.asp?vlnk=358&More=Y
