§ Mr. Rentonasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement on the changes in unemployment statistics resulting from the introduction of voluntary registration in October.
§ Mr. TebbitWhen voluntary registration is introduced in October, to improve the efficiency of the employment and benefit services, there will be consequential effects on the unemployment statistics. The unemployment count will then be based on computerised records of claimants rather than the clerical count of registrants.
Although some seriously disabled unemployed people who are not in the present count will be included, the exclusion of non-claimants will cause a reduction in total, varying according to the time of year. The use of the computer records will also affect the count. An estimate of the net discontinuity will be made.
A full account of the changes in the system will be published in the September issue of Employment Gazette, a copy of which will be in the Library; the proposals were originally described in the Gazette of April 1981.