HC Deb 05 March 1985 vol 74 c762
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On 19 October 1984, as sent to all honourable Members representing English constituencies
When I wrote to you on 16 July, I pointed to a new development in the presentation of my Department's unemployment statistics, namely that they would be available for areas defined in terms of local authority wards. I am now pleased to be able to confirm
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that figures for parliamentary constituencies, local authority districts, counties and travel to work areas for August were published in the September edition of the Employment Gazette, and will be henceforth. Back figures to June 1983 can also be made available.
In addition, the service of providing unemployment data to colleagues has been significantly improved. A computer databank of this information has been established and a terminal link is now available in the House of Commons Library. This facility will provide you with a more convenient and speedier access to data previously only available through my Department. In order to provide as up-to-date information as possible the computer system is supplemented by summary data produced for the monthly press notice. It will therefore be possible to obtain the information for your constituency immediately following the publication of the monthly figure.
Our new system is being introduced over a period of time. Until the middle of next year you will only be able to obtain information for Parliamentary constituencies, local authority districts, counties or travel-to-work areas. After the middle of next year, however, it will be possible to obtain information for any area in which you are interested as long as it can be defined in terms of local authority wards. You will be interested to know that the system will not only produce the data but it will also be possible to undertake simple analyses, for instance to rank areas. The terminals will be operated by the library staff at your request. One consequence of the ready availability of comprehensive unemployment data through the library is that in dealing with written PQs requesting straightforward information, Members will be referred to the library as the source of such statistics, thereby treating the computer data-base on a par with other published sources and extending our current practice in handling written PQs. I should emphasise, though, that where requests are complicated and require expert attention we will, as now, continue to provide the information in the written reply.
The above procedure will lead to a prompter and more comprehensive access to unemployment statistics. I hope you will find the new arrangements welcome.