The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord McKenzie of Luton): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (James Purnell) has made the following Statement.

The Households Below Average Income 1994-95 to 2006-07 series was due to be published on 2 May 2008. This date of the publication was announced on the National Statistics website, in line with the National Statistics code of practice.

In the course of validating the statistics, DWP statisticians identified a small but important inaccuracy in the 2006-07 data which impacts on some of the headline figures. As a result, the DWP Statistics Head of Profession has decided to delay publication of this series, along with the family resources survey and pensioner incomes series reports, which are traditionally published at the same time. The take-up of income-related benefits publication may also be delayed.

The head of profession’s decision has been agreed by Karen Dunnell, the National Statistician, and with the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which provides an independent quality assurance role for the department in relation to the statistical series concerned.

Publication is now expected to be in June. As before, the date of publication will be announced on the National Statistics website, in line with the National Statistics code of practice. Further details can be found in a technical note on the DWP website.