HC Deb 28 June 1994 vol 245 cc673-4
10. Mr. Flynn

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is his most recent estimate of the number of people who are counted twice or thrice in the employment totals.

Mr. Michael Forsyth

Three per cent. of the employed work force have two or more jobs.

Mr. Flynn

Was not it unfair of Mr. Alan Clark in his diaries to say that the Department of Employment did nothing but concoct useless schemes to con the unemployed off the register, ignoring entirely the imaginative, creative energetic work that takes place in the Department every month to fiddle the employment and unemployment figures? Should not the Department's headquarters be recognised for what it is; the country's biggest, most shameless, most disreputable massage parlour?

Mr. Forsyth

I am responsible for many difficult things, but, fortunately, I am not responsible for Mr. Alan Clark's diaries.

Sir Donald Thompson

Has my hon. Friend any idea of the number of people who are registered unemployed or are registered for benefit who are working?

Mr. Forsyth

My hon. Friend will be aware that we are proposing to introduce the new job seeker's allowance, which will help to ensure that people are targeted and that we give them the help and support that they need to get back into employment. It is interesting that a number of those measures in the past have resulted in people leaving the register entirely. It is wholly proper that our resources should be concentrated on minimising the number of people who face unemployment and on helping those who face unemployment back into work.

Mr. Prescott

Can the Minister explain why the Department's own statisticians have agreed that the adjustment to the unemployment criteria figures have reduced the claimants by at least 500,000 and that the double counting for the employment figures has increased them? Is that a pure coincidence or, by political design, just one, big, major fiddle?

Mr. Forsyth

The hon. Gentleman knows that he is talking nonsense. I cannot think why we have Question Time after Question Time when he makes the same points about the figures. Presumably, it is because he is not able to give the House any answers as to how he would deliver the full employment which he boasts he and his party can achieve.