§ Mr. Lawsonasked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the annual financial saving accruing to his Department consequent on its decision to compile figures of unemployment analysed by industry on a quarterly basis in place of the monthly series that has been available for the past half century; and what further plans he has for the discontinuation of statistical series as an economy measure.
§ Mr. GoldingSeveral changes in procedures have been made in order to limit the growing workload on staff in the local offices of the Employment Service Agency and the careers offices, including the change in frequency of the industrial analysis. I am informed by the Manpower Services Commission that it is estimated that the effect of these changes has been to save the equivalent of up to 35 staff, but that it is very difficult to556W assess how much of this total can be attributed to particular measures. I have no further plans for changes in other statistical series.