§ Mr. Gwynfor Evansasked the Secretary of State for Employment what number of the registered workers are unemployed in Wales, Scotland and England, respectively; and what proportion of the total number of registered workers in these countries, respectively, do the unemployed represent.
§ Mr. John FraserFollowing is the information for 20th January 1975:
Number unemployed Percentage rate of unemployment * Wales 48,000 4.7 Scotland 103,000 4.8 England 591,000 3.0 * The number unemployed expressed as a percentage of the total number of employees, including the unemployed. The figures for this date have been obtained using a special simplified counting procedure. They may not be as accurate as the normal monthly figures and should be treated only as approximate indications.
§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish in the Official Report the average expenditure in pounds sterling from public funds per unemployed person in the United Kingdom. France, West Germany and Sweden on (a) unemployment support, including supplementary allowance, and (b) retraining and relocation in the latest year for which the information is available.
§ Mr. John FraserIn the financial year 1973–74 the average expenditure per unemployed person in Great Britain on unemployment benefit and supplementary 423W allowance was £165 and on relocation £2.2. No separate figure for retraining per unemployed person is available.
The information for the whole of the United Kingdom, France, West Germany and Sweden is not available.
§ Mr. Cordleasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make it a practice to distinguish in the figures of unemployment issued by his Department the following categories of persons: (a) those who have been unemployed for more than six months, (b) those who have been unemployed for more than four months but less than six months, (c) those who have been unemployed for more than two months but less than four months, (d) those who have been unemployed for more than one month but less than two months, (e) those who have been unemployed for more than two weeks but less than one month, (f) those who have been unemployed for less than two weeks, (g) those who are technically unemployed by reason of industrial dispute, and (h) those who are regarded as unemployed by reason of some physical or personal disability.
§ Mr. John FraserThe information requested on duration of unemployment is already published, once a quarter, in the Department of EmploymentGazette, with the exception that a division is made at three months but not at four months. The latest figures were published in the November 1974 issue of the Gazette (p. 1051). A less detailed analysis is made in the intervening months.
The unemployment figures do not include those who are temporarily out of work as the result of an industrial dispute if they expect to return to their job.
Severely disabled persons who are unlikely to obtain a job except under special conditions are excluded from the unemployment figures. Other registered disabled persons, who are included in the figures, are separately distinguished each month in a special note in the Gazette, most recently on page 1144 of the December 1974 Gazette.