Introduction

Background to the statistics

A household expenditure survey has been conducted each year in the UK since 1957. Since 2008, this has been in the form of the Living Costs and Food Survey (LCF). The LCF is an annual survey, designed primarily to measure household expenditure on goods and services. It also gathers information about the income of household members. Respondents, including children, keep a detailed diary of expenditure for two weeks. A proportion of respondents also record the weights and measures of food and drink items bought.

ONS publishes the data and analyses from the Living Costs and Food Survey (LCF) in a publication titled Family Spending in the UK. These LCF data, along with a range of other data sources, also contribute to the production of other ONS economic statistics, such as the Retail Prices Index (RPI), the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) and the Household Final Consumption Expenditure component in gross domestic product (GDP). ONS also uses the LCF data to produce a range of household income statistics: Average Household Income, UK; Household Income Inequality, UK; and Effects of Taxes and Benefits on UK Household Income.

Earlier OSR reviews and outcomes

In 2021, we carried out an assessment of the LCF, which was undertaken in response to some errors in the RPI. To keep the National Statistics badge (now called accredited official statistics), we required ONS to devise a longer-term solution for the LCF which draws on international best practice and wider transformation initiatives. In response to our requirement that ONS needed to invest time and resource to pursuing initiatives to improve the quality and robustness of LCF data, ONS updated the data processing systems for the LCF, improved the robustness of quality assurance of the data and increased user engagement activities.

We also required ONS to “develop a solution to address user need for more granular breakdowns of data, so that the devolved administrations and other key users can use the statistics in the way that they need to for the public good.” ONS commissioned the National Centre for Social Research (Nat Cen) to conduct a review to inform future expenditure data collection. The review covered:

•  a summary of user requirements for household expenditure data
• an overview of alternative sources of data, including an assessment of suitability against user needs
• recommendations for a high-level design of expenditure data collection, including highlighting that a move to automation for the collection, coding and processing would have the largest beneficial impact on the survey
• recommending that moving to digital capture for the diary element of the survey would be the most meaningful change the survey could make

We note that ONS has included these improvements in its Survey Improvement and Enhancement Plan for Economic Statistics.

In October 2022, we wrote a letter to ONS to confirm the continued designation of accredited official statistics for ‘Family Spending in the UK’ following ONS’s completion of the actions needed to meet the requirements of our 2021 assessment report. We noted ONS’s plans to transform its Household Financial Surveys (HFST), and that the LCF fitted within this Household Finance Survey (HFS) model and transformation plans. We said, “many of the planned strategic improvements to the LCF survey data are now being taken forward as part of ONS’ Household Financial Statistics Transformation (HFST) project”.

ONS published feedback from a consultation and paused the HFST project in 2023, which meant that some planned developments, such as the redevelopment of the income questions, were not taken forward at that time. However, as part of its work to transform the production of the price indices, ONS strengthened the quality assurance and processing of the LCF data and decided to prioritise the data collection for both the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and LCF from April 2024.

In response to ongoing challenges in maintaining the quality and reliability of its survey data, in June 2025, ONS published its ONS Plan for Economic Statistics and its Survey Improvement and Enhancement Plan for Economic Statistics. This plan notes that ONS is working to stabilise interviewer capacity and capability on the LCF. It also notes that “We are also investing in improvements to LCF to be introduced from April 2026, subject to funding and the conclusion of current business planning processes. These include an improved questionnaire, a further sample boost to 30,000 issued households and updated processing infrastructure and pipelines to introduce automated methods where possible”. These improvements are welcome.

Our approach to this review

This report provides our high-level view on whether the statistics in this publication continue to meet the standards of the Code of Practice for Statistics.

We looked at the annual statistical tables and analyses published by ONS as well as supplementary documents, such as the LCF Quality and Methodology Information (QMI) and the LCF technical report.

We spoke with users of LCF data from other government departments, arm’s length bodies, think tanks and academia. We also liaised with teams in ONS who use these data to help to construct statistical series, such as the Retail Prices Index (RPI) and the Consumer Prices Index (CPI). We reflect on whether the needs of these users are being met.

We engaged with 11 organisations as part of our review (listed in Annex A).