The Office for National Statistics is preparing to change the day on which is publishes jobs data, in part because it fears members of parliament may not understand the figures.

In a statement, the ONS said it would shift the release day for the monthly data from Wednesdays to Tuesdays so politicians would have a chance to brush up their statistics knowledge before debating them. Wednesday is the day for weekly prime minister’s questions in parliament.

The ONS said:

Publication of labour market statistics on the day of Prime Minister’s Questions — one of the most important and most widely covered parliamentary occasions — means there is a risk that these detailed statistics are not fully understood by parliamentarians on both sides of the House before they can be debated. This reduces the public value of these statistics. To ensure that there is greater time to understand these statistics and promote public debate and scrutiny, we are bringing forward publication of labour market statistics from Wednesdays to Tuesdays.

However, Wes Streeting, a Labour member of the Treasury select committee, was a little sceptical the extra time would help. He said: “Sadly, it will take more than a change in the publication date of jobs data to bring about a well-informed debate at Prime Minister’s Questions, but it’s nice to know that someone at the ONS has the naive optimism to believe otherwise. We can all live in hope.”

To avoid a clash, inflation data will move to Wednesdays, from Tuesdays.

Chris Leslie, a Labour MP, said the move was “oddly out of the blue.”

“If avoiding PMQs is the issue, why then switch inflation stats to a Wednesday? The cost of living can be just as contentious,” he said.

The new full schedule of data releases is here.

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