PAYE RTI release gains accredited official statistics status

31 Jul 2025 01:18 PM

Following an assessment by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR), the Pay As You Earn Real Time Information release has received accredited official statistics status.

These statistics provide a highly detailed monthly overview of the number of payrolled employees and their earnings, sourced from the latest information gathered by His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC). They cover the whole payrolled employee population rather than a sample of people or companies, and they allow for more detailed estimates of the population than the survey-based measures.

The series, first published in December 2019, up to now has carried the designation of official statistics in development. Today’s assessment concludes that the data comply with the standards of Trustworthiness, Quality and Value in the Code of Practice for Statistics, and should therefore be labelled as Accredited Official Statistics.

Commenting on the decision, ONS acting Director General for Economic Statistics Grant Fitzner said:

“Today’s decision is a recognition of the years of hard work at HMRC and the ONS that have gone into ensuring this administrative data series provides timely and valuable insights into employment. In the months ahead we will continue our work to improve our labour market surveys to ensure our suite of statistics gives a comprehensive and coherent picture of the UK’s labour market.”

Notes to editors

1. The ONS is in the process of transforming its household survey-based labour market measures – see our latest update published on 21 July 2025. However, we continue to recommend using these estimates as part of our suite of labour market indicators, alongside PAYE RTI, workforce jobs and Claimant Count estimates.
2. Today’s formal decision is set out in a letter from Ed Humpherson of the OSR to Grant Fitzner at ONS and Jane Whittaker at HMRC published today on the OSR website.