Letter to the Office of National Statistics

Sir Ian Diamond

Permanent Secretary 

Office for National Statistics 

21 March 2023

Dear Ian

We are writing to express our concern that the Office for National Statistics (ONS) will be pausing Covid-19 Infection Survey data collection from mid-March with no confirmation as to whether the survey will continue.  

We urge you to continue with this data collection.  

The data collected in the survey has been vital in understanding the levels of infection, hospitalisation, deaths and, essentially, the impact of the vaccine and its role in reducing the spread of Covid-19. 

Covid-19 continues to be a risk to working people, and to manage that risk we must understand who is catching it, where infection is highest and the severity of illness, to inform prevention, control the spread of the virus, and protect health.  

The data from the ONS has also been important in understanding the prevalence of Long Covid and its effects on people’s lives. Recent data shows 2 million people are experiencing symptoms of Long Covid. Without this data we risk people's experiences being forgotten at a time when we need urgent action by government and employers to support them.  

It is also essential in highlighting which communities are most affected by Covid-19 and Long Covid and ensuring interventions are designed with those groups in mind. Data also demonstrates that a failure to act means exacerbating existing inequalities in our economy. 

Finally, we are concerned that a lack of data could impede the work of the Industrial Injuries Advisory Council in subsequent recommendations for prescription of Covid-19 as an occupational disease, given that ONS data was frequently cited in their recent report Covid-19 and occupational impacts published in November 2022.  

We urge you to continue with data collection on Covid-19. It is vital to protect people across the country and expose the number of people whose lives have been changed by Covid-19, many of whom are key workers and still need support.  

Yours sincerely 

Paul Nowak 

TUC General Secretary 

Cc. Emma Rourke, Director of Health Analysis and Pandemic Insight, ONS