Half of the 1.1m people still on the Coronavirus job retention scheme (CJRS) at the end of September were on a flexible furlough arrangement. The figures show that the cost of the furlough scheme until 30 September hit £70bn.

Since the end of April, as restrictions started to ease nearly 2.4m people left the scheme and in September the Office National Statistics estimated that between 900,000 and 1.4m employees were furloughed in late September, up to 700,000 of them full-time.