FOI reference: FOI-2025-3276
You asked
I noticed that the ASHE: summary of pension results is no longer updated after 2021.
Please send me the datasets for 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.
We said
Thank you for your Freedom of Information relating the ASHE pension data for the years 2022 to 2025.
The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), carried out in April each year, is the most comprehensive source of earnings information in the United Kingdom. ASHE is based on a 1% sample of employee jobs taken from HM Revenue and Customs' Pay As You Earn (PAYE) records.
The ASHE pension release and data is published on a separate release to the main ASHE publication. The information you request is provisionally scheduled for publication next year (2026). The latest pension release and data were published in April 2022, and contained information on the 2021 provisional data. We are planning to reinstate this publication in 2026 with the publication of the 2021, 2022 and 2023 revised data and the 2024 provisional data.
As such, the requested information is exempt from disclosure under Section 22(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, whereby information is exempt from release if there is a view to publish the information in the future. As a central government department and producer of official statistics, we need to have the freedom to be able to determine our own publication timetables. This is to allow us to deal with the necessary preparation, administration and context of publications. It would be unreasonable to consider disclosure when to do so would undermine our functions.
This exemption is subject to a public interest test. We recognise the desirability of information being freely available and this is considered by ONS when publication schedules are set in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. The need for timely data must be balanced against the practicalities of applying statistical skill and judgement to produce the high quality, assured data needed to inform decision-making. If this balance is incorrectly applied, then we run the risk of decisions being based on inaccurate data which is arguably not in the public interest. This will have an impact on public trust in official statistics in a time when accuracy of official statistics is more important to the public than ever before.