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Division Current situation

United Kingdom

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The system of statistics on living conditions and social protection rests on two main pillars: ESSPROS (system of social protection statistics) and EU-SILC (statistics on income and living conditions). These two pillars underpin the Laeken and pension indicators of the OMC. Progress is still to be made to develop indicators on regional and on child poverty.

Concerning the demographic changes in the EU, indicators and statistical analyses relating to ageing, financial sustainability, productivity and labour participation will be further developed in the framework of the OMC and in collaboration with the relevant Council working groups.

Data on lifelong learning cover information on formal and non-formal education and training, and informal learning. Based on established education statistics, new data have been compiled on vocational training in enterprises (measuring the enterprise commitment and contributions to employee vocational training) and on adult education and training. Data on youth are available from existing surveys and these will be fully exploited before further efforts are made to integrate the youth dimensions better in existing surveys.

For health and safety at work, data collection and analysis will focus on the causes, circumstances and costs of accidents at work, on occupational diseases and work-related health problems, as well as on factors which may adversely affect the health of workers. Collection of statistics, in particular harmonised survey modules on disability will be further developed. Statistics will be further improved to support the development of high-quality, accessible and sustainable health care and long-term care.

The key objective for demographic statistics will be to provide the comprehensive set of data and analyses necessary to assess the implications of demographic change in Europe. This will be achieved by improving the methods and contents of demographic data collections, implementing legislation for the 2011 round of population and housing censuses, and by the regular production of long-run population projections.

Main initiatives for 2008 to 2012:

  • a limited set of core variables will be developed and a new instrument, European System of Social Statistical Survey Modules (E4SM), will be established,

  • the EU-SILC project will be consolidated, the longitudinal dissemination will be developed and the gross income concept will be fully put into operation,

  • indicators on regional poverty (using small area estimation techniques where national regional data are not available) and child poverty will be developed,

  • implementing regulations on ESSPROS to improve coverage, comparability and timeliness of data will be developed,

  • the Regulation on Statistics on Education and Lifelong Learning will be adopted and implemented,

  • the existing lifelong learning statistics framework in terms of quality will be improved,

  • by 2010, the possibility of implementing the UN Human Development Index in the EU will be examined, taking into account the housing and employment/unemployment factors as well,

  • statistics on youth at all educational levels and on youth economic and social integration will be successively compiled, using existing sources and, when needed, integrating them better in existing surveys,

  • statistics on children with reference to the internationally agreed age limit of childhood, which is 18 years pursuant to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, will be compiled as regards the social situation of and poverty among children,

  • all social data collected on individuals at EU level will be disaggregated by gender and a core set of indicators on the equality between men and women will be defined,

  • a memorandum of understanding in cooperation with the European Institute for Gender Equality will be drawn up in order to define the practical cooperation modalities,

  • possibilities for the development of a common methodology to obtain or to improve existing statistical data on the extent and impact of discrimination will be explored.