FOI Reference: FOI-2023-1549
You asked
The following website, AAC for Acupuncture Practitioners, states:
"In November 2021 the British Acupuncture Federation managed to upgrade Acupuncture Practitioners 100 places on the Office of National Statistics into the same category as other Healthcare Professionals such as Osteopaths and Physiotherapists."
Please can you provide a copy of all emails and correspondence held between British Acupuncture Federation, or its representatives, and ONS.
We said
Thank you for the request.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) does not hold any correspondence with the British Acupuncture Federation in relation to the topic discussed in the referenced article.
To clarify, in 2016 the ONS commenced the revision of the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) 2010 to create SOC 2020. In July 2018, the ONS SOC revision team proposed that the job title of 'Acupuncturist' is moved from the SOC 2010 unit group 3219 (Health associate professionals not elsewhere classified (n.e.c.)) to 2259 (Other health professionals n.e.c). It was however agreed that 2229 (Therapy professionals n.e.c.) would be the more suitable code.
The job title of 'Acupuncturist' coding to 2229 in the SOC 2020 coding index was published on 14 February 2020 in the final SOC 2020.