§ Mr. David Huntasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will detail the activities of the census office within his Department giving the number of people employed, the total cost to public funds and identifying the surveys and census projects carried out in 1976, 1977 and 1978.
§ Mr. GoldingOne of the responsibilities of my Department's statistics division is the taking of an annual census of employment which provides the country's main annual series of local, regional and national employment statistics.
On 1st April 1978, 89 permanent staff and 14 casual staff in the division were employed on work associated with the 27W annual census. Additionally an average of some 600 staff will be employed in unemployment benefit offices between April and October on the collection of 1978 census information. The overall cost, excluding computer facilities, is expected to be of the order of £2 million in the current financial year.
Computer facilities are provided by my Department's computer branch. In the previous financial year the overall cost of these facilities for census work was £490,000. Some increase is expected in the current financial year.
Other staff within the statistics division prepare a range of regular statistics including those for unemployment, earnings and hours of work, industrial disputes, labour costs, family expenditure and retail prices. Monthly and quarterly provisional employment estimates for dates subsequent to the most recent census of employment are also prepared.