FOI reference: FOI-2026-3713
You asked
Please treat this as a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
On 19/06/2026, ONS Director General James Benford stated that ONS would conduct a lessons-learned exercise following the May 2026 Labour Force Survey operational issue, that it would report to him and would bring in external perspectives.
ONS's Surveys and Economic Statistics Improvement Plan quarterly progress update: July 2026 subsequently records that a systems error led to an over-allocation of interviewer resource from the LFS to the Transformed Labour Force Survey and that findings from the lessons-learned exercise were due on 27/07/2026.
ONS's Labour market transformation: update on progress and plans, published 11/08/2026, states that the subsequent lessons-learned review had been completed with independent external input. It records findings concerning operational changes and pressures, interviewer capacity, early identification and escalation, and states that actions had been implemented to strengthen operational oversight, governance and performance monitoring.
Please provide:
the final report, paper, presentation or other recorded output containing the findings and recommendations of that completed lessons-learned review and used to report them to James Benford; and
if separate from item 1, the final management response or action plan held by 11/08/2026 recording actions arising directly from the review.
If there is no single record formally titled “lessons-learned review”, please provide the final recorded findings and recommendations supplied to James Benford in the form in which they are held. If item 1 already contains the management response or actions, please do not duplicate them under item 2.
I am not requesting drafts, working papers, staff interviews or consultation submissions, correspondence, disciplinary or personnel material, underlying operational datasets, or the wider assessment of social survey operations announced on 11/08/2026.
If substantive material is withheld, please disclose the reasonably separable review scope and methodology; chronology; findings on contributing causes, operational controls, oversight, governance, monitoring and escalation; recommendations; and, for item 2, management responses, agreed actions, target dates, status and action owners by role rather than individual name.
Where recorded in either requested record, please retain the identity of any external organisation providing independent input, or otherwise its professional role or affiliation, where this can be disclosed without identifying an individual.
ONS has stated that further updates on the lessons learned and its response will appear in a future Surveys and Economic Statistics Improvement Plan quarterly update. This request is for the existing completed review and existing management response or action plan, not a future summary. If ONS considers any requested information to be intended for future publication, please identify the specific information concerned and its intended publication date or publication route, and disclose the remaining requested information separately.
If no recorded output meeting item 1 is held, please state that. If item 1 is held but no separate record meeting item 2 was held by 11/08/2026, please state that separately.
If responsive information is already publicly accessible, please give its precise public location and disclose any requested information from the same records that is not publicly accessible.
Please identify the statutory basis for any withholding and provide the required public-interest reasoning where applicable. Please disclose all reasonably separable non-exempt information.
I would prefer the information electronically in its existing format.
We said
Thank you for your request.
The final report in scope of part 1 of your request can be found published on the ONS website here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/ourstrategyandplans/onsimprovementplans/labourforcesurveyoperationallessonslearnedreviewjuly2026.
We do not hold information in scope of your second question. As recommended by the lessons learned report, and as indicated in the July Surveys and Economic Statistics Improvement Plan (SESIP) update, we are also looking more broadly across our social survey operations to ensure that the lessons learned are widely embedded. Further information on progress against the review's recommendations and wider social survey recovery activity will be provided in the October SESIP Plan update.