HC Deb 19 January 1993 vol 217 cc253-4
11. Mr. Flynn

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what changes she plans to improve the accuracy of employment statistics.

Mr. McLoughlin

The Department has already taken steps to improve the reliability of employment statistics and additional work, including the first full census of employers since 1981, is in hand.

Mr. Flynn

Is the Minister aware that a woman who works as a cleaner in the House in the early hours of the morning, who has a similar job in a London hospital in the afternoon, and who works as a barmaid at the weekend is treated by the Government as three people? Why do the Government persist in including 750,000 people who have double jobs twice and sometimes three times in the unemployment statistics? Why do they include 1 million non-existent self-employed people in the statistics and insist on counting at least 2 million part timers as though they were full timers? They should stop blaming the last Labour Government for all their problems, stop creating fiction and start creating jobs.

Mr. McLoughlin

The employees in employment series is the count of the number of jobs in the economy and follows the practice of the previous Administration. [Interruption.] We have made no secret of that. I am not sure from the hon. Gentleman's question whether he wants us to count the three Labour Members who are also Members of the European Parliament as doing one or two jobs.

Mr. Alexander

Is it not the case that every time the Government arrange to improve the accuracy of the statistics Labour accuses us of distorting them?

Mr. McLoughlin

That is correct. My hon. Friend points to the picture that the Opposition always paint. As I have said, the method used to count those who are in employment is no different from that used by the previous Administration.