1.

The members of the Validation Group are David Lockwood, Karen O’Reilly and David Rose (University of Essex), Sara Arber (University of Surrey), Richard Bland (University of Stirling), Angela Dale (University of Manchester), Peter Elias (University of Warwick), Gordon Marshall (Nuffield College, Oxford) and Jean Martin (ONS). The other members of the Steering Committee are: Rosemary Crompton (University of Leicester), Ray Fitzpatrick (University of Oxford), Roderick Floud (London Guildhall University), Peter Goldblatt (Home Office) and Roger Thomas (Social and Community Planning Research).

2.

Given these comments on our revised SEC, associated causal narratives and methods for testing them, it is worth commenting on the relationship between this approach to the construction and use of an SEC with what others have requested of a ‘non-occupational classification' or ‘NOC'. Some of the proponents of a NOC have pointed to Stevenson’s original intentions when devising his social class schema. Stevenson specifically rejected an income- or wealth-based SEC because he believed it was the cultural associations of income and wealth which affected mortality and morbidity, rather than the income or wealth itself. This point has been interpreted by NOC proponents to include the degree to which people have control over their lives and the resources they command and thus the extent to which they can determine their own life-chances. Given what we believe our revised SEC offers, as explained in Para 2.2.4 especially, the proponents of a NOC might wish to consider whether such a classification is really required.

3.	SEGGRP collapses Socio-Economic Group as follows:-
	SEGGRP	SEG
	1 Professionals	3, 4
	2 Managers	1, 2
	3 Intermediate non-manual	5
	4 Junior non-manual	6
	5 Skilled manual	8, 9, 12, 14
	6 Semi-skilled manual	7, 10, 15
	7 Unskilled manual	11
	8 Armed forces, inad. des	16

4.

As we note in Section 4.4, final decisions have yet to be made with respect to the classification of those not in paid employment. For this reason the interim SEC has not yet been applied to that section of the population. Furthermore, the questions placed on the Omnibus Surveys only applied to those currently in paid work as employees and therefore analyses using these data apply only to that section of the population. Further analyses will be carried out in Phase 3 to test the criterion and construct validity of the revised SEC for those not in paid work and for the self-employed.

5.	Following analyses of Omnibus data, it was agreed that the following questions be added to the December 1996-February 1997 LFS Round:
	(1) Which of the following best describes how you are paid in your present job?
	Monthly salary plus performance
	Monthly salary only
	Weekly wage
	Hourly paid
	Piecework
	Other
	(2) Are you on a recognised pay scale with increments, either automatic or performance related?
	Yes
	No
	Don’t know
	(3) If you decided to leave your job, how much notice are you officially required to give?
	Less than one week
	One week but less than one month
	One month but less than three months
	Three months or more
	Don’t know
	(4) In your sort of work, are there opportunities for promotion, either in your current organisation or by changing employers?
	Yes
	No
	Don’t know
	(5) Who decides what time you start and leave work?
	Flexitime system
	Employer decides
	I decide within certain limits
	Negotiated with employer
	(6) Does your job require you to design and plan important aspects of your own work, or is your work largely specified for you?
	I am required to design/plan my work
	Work is largely specified by others
	Other (specify)
	(7) How much influence do you personally have in deciding what tasks you are to do?
	A great deal
	A fair amount
	Not much
	Or none at all
	On the basis of the 1994 (Q4) LFS, we estimate that we will have c.64,000 cases coded to SOC OUGs. However, the questions we propose only apply to employees. This reduces our effective base to c56,000 cases. Of these, 10,200 (18%) will be managers, 7,000 (12.5%) will be supervisors and 38,500 (69.5%) will be other employees. 42,000 employees (75%) will be in full-time employment.

6.

These minor changes are as follows: (1) it had been previously agreed to divide SEG 13 between SEC 1.2 and 2.2 but this meant that managers in farming were categorised as if they were proprietors. We decided, therefore, to allocate farm managers to SEC 3 and 4. This applies to OUG 160. Own account farmers (SEG 14) are in SEC 10.2. Treating OUG 169 in the same manner as 160 results in the new 12* in the SEG column for SEC 10.2 in Appendix 2; (2) some OUGs in SEG 7 have been re-allocated to SEC 6.2 or SEC 11; (3) OUG 661 (in SEG 10) has been moved from SEC 12.1 to SEC 11; (4) some OUGs in SEG 10 have been moved from SEC 12.1 to SEC 11; (5) in view of various comments from government departments, we have changed the nomenclature of some categories, generally to remove references to ‘lower’, ‘higher’ and ‘routine’. We have also labelled the categories of the short version of the SEC (Appendix 3) with numbers rather than letters. Our research also suggests that most small employers should be in category 4 rather than category 2 of the short version; and that at least some supervisors of white-collar employees should be moved from 2 to 5 in the short version. However, we need to undertake further research on these issues.