FOI reference: FOI-2024-1904
You asked
I note that you regularly published estimations of NEETs – people ‘Not in Education or Training’. Your most recent publication on this topic was February 2024 and was specifically about young people aged 16 to 24.
Based on this information I am making the following FOI requests.
1. An annual breakdown of the number of young people (aged 16 to 24 years) not in education, employment, or training (NEET) in Scotland per year since 2006 until 2024.
Please provide the total number of young people (aged 16 to 24) recognised as NEET per calendar year. (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2022, 2023 and 2024 so far).
If you do not hold the information before a particular year that I’ve requested then please still provide the entirety of what you do hold.
2. In addition to request 1, please also, if possible, provide a breakdown of this number per year by geography, specifically either by region of Scotland or by Scottish Local Authority.
In other words, please provide a breakdown of the figure from request 1 by where the young people, not in education or training, were recorded as living at the time.
3. A list of all personal aspects/details that you record about a person who is recognised as a young person ‘not in education or training’. For example, I understand you record age and sex but please also reveal all other details you record about the person.
We said
Thank you for your query regarding Young People Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) in Scotland.
We produce statistics for the number of people who are NEET for the UK as a whole. However, responsibility for NEET statistics for the individual countries are devolved to the various authorities. Consequently, the Scottish Government has responsibility for the NEET statistics for Scotland.
The methodology that ONS uses to produce NEET statistics for the UK, has been agreed by the various authorities for producing UK level estimates, but differs from the method used by the various authorities in producing their own statistics. Therefore, the NEET statistics for the individual countries are not consistent with and do not sum to the UK figures we produce.
The NEET statistics produced for Scotland by the Scottish Government are published as part of their Annual Participation Measure report. For further information on NEET statistics for Scotland, you may wish to contact the authors of that report.
The UK NEET statistics are derived from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), a household survey based on interviews with individuals in households, which is the basis for a wide range of labour market measures. The survey collects a wide range of information about the labour market situation and personal characteristics of people. The NEET estimates are based on the subset of overall survey respondents whose information meets the definition of NEET. The full LFS questionnaire, along with details of the variables collected and derived from the collected information is available as part of the LFS User Guidance.
Again, you would need to contact the authors of Scotland’s Annual Participation Measure report for details of the variables available alongside the NEET variable definition for Scotland.