§ Mr. SarwarTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many workers he expects to benefit from the introduction of the national minimum wage in the constituency of Glasgow, Govan. [74882]
§ Ms HewittThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.
90WLetter from Dr. M. P. G. Pepper to Mr. Mohammad Sarwar, dated 8 March 1999:
In the absence of the Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your recent question on the number of people who will benefit from the introduction of the proposed national minimum wage (NMW).The New Earnings Survey (NES) can provide earnings data for small geographical areas. However, the release of NES data is restricted to figures which are derived from a sufficiently large sample of employees, and have an acceptable level of accuracy.Estimates of the proportion of people who are currently earning below the proposed minimum wage for a range of geographical areas have been placed in the House of Commons Library under the title of 'New Earnings Survey 1998—National Minimum Wage Distribution Tables'. These include available information for the Glasgow Govan constituency. The tables provide an historical position against the 1998 values of the proposed NMW, and make no judgement on whether its introduction will have any effect on the number of jobs.