Dear Rob,

Thank you for your letter of 10 February regarding the publication of the report covering your recent review of Family Spending statistics from the Living Costs and Food (LCF) Survey. We welcome both the publication of the review and its conclusion that Family Spending in the UK can continue to be published as accredited official statistics.

The review recognises the value users attach to the LCF and its importance to them as a data source, including the unique role played by the food diary. We appreciate your finding that the LCF continues to provide statistics of sufficient value and quality despite recent challenges with achieved sample size and timeliness.

As you note, work is already underway to address these recent challenges and further improve the value and quality of these statistics. ONS will continue to take forward the improvements laid out in the Economic Statistics Plan and the Survey Improvement and Enhancement Plan for Economic Statistics, with further investment subject to the conclusion of current business planning processes.

We also welcome OSR’s recommendations to further strengthen how these statistics meet user needs including through engaging with our expert users to better understand their requirements, particularly around information on data changes over time, improving the timeliness of publications, and providing clearer information on survey bias, representativeness and comparability. We recognise your expectation that ONS will report on progress against these areas by April 2026. We will ensure you are kept updated as this work advances, and we remain committed to maintaining open, constructive and transparent engagement with OSR throughout this period.

Yours sincerely,

Alex Lambert, Director of Social Surveys

Liz McKeown, Director of Economic Statistics Production and Analysis