§ Mrs. EwingTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many ACAS offices operate in the United Kingdom; and if he will list them by geographical location.
§ Miss WiddecombeThere are currently 13 ACAS offices operating in the United Kingdom, grouped together in seven ACAS regions in England, together with Scotland and Wales. The offices are:
- London region: London
- Midlands region: Birmingham, Nottingham
- Northern region: Newcastle
- North West region: Manchester, Liverpool, Accrington
- Scotland: Glasgow
- Eastern and Southern: Fleet
- South and West: Bristol
- Wales: Cardiff
- Yorkshire and Humberside: Leeds
- Head office: London
§ Mrs. EwingTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment what has been the total number of referrals made to ACAS in each of the past five years.
§ Miss WiddecombeThe number of referrals and requests for assistance made to ACAS in the last five years is as published in the ACAS annual reports for the years 1988 to 1992. These are as follows:
Workforce in employment: United Kingdom (Seasonally adjusted) (Thousands) December 1975 24,927 December 1979 25,485 December 19931 25,017 1Latest available.
§ Mr. PrescottTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list for each year since 1984 the number of people in Great Britain surveyed by the labour force survey who, although they are without a job, have looked for a job within the four weeks prior to their labour force survey interview or are waiting to start a job they had already obtained, were not available to start a job within the two weeks following their labour force survey 291W interview, and the number of people who were neither in employment nor unemployed on the International Labour Organisation measure but who said they wold like a job.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythBoth of the categories asked for in the question are defined as 'economically inactive' according to International Labour Organisation guidelines. Estimates from the labour force survey for the spring of each year since 1984 of the numbers in each group are given in the following table.
As shown by the analyses of these groups routinely published in the LFS help line section of the Employment Gazette, the majority of people who say they want work but are not actively seeking it are students; looking after a family or home; or long term sick or disabled.
Great Britain People who say they would like work but are not actively seeking it and/or are not available to start
Thousands Quarter Total Of which: seeking work, but not available to start1 Spring 1984 2,414 207 Spring 1985 2,266 222 Spring 1986 2,316 205 Spring 1987 2,180 206 Spring 1988 2,184 195 Spring 1989 2,314 221 Spring 1990 2,198 186 Spring 1991 2,245 218 Spring 1992 2,221 313 Spring 1993 2,195 310 Source: Labour Force Survey
1 Numbers without a paid job who had either looked for work in the past four weeks or were waiting to start a job they had already obtained, but were not available to start within the next two weeks.
§ Mr. PrescottTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many indices of unemployment are calculated by each of the countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythThe results of a survey of the more commonly used unemployment measures in 16 countries were published in the September 1992Employment Gazette, a copy of which is available in the Library. To extend this to all OECD countries would incur disproportionate costs.
§ Mr. PrescottTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment if the unemployment statistics used in the Government's submission to the G7 jobs summit in Detroit, "Competitiveness and Employment: The UK Approach" represented the level of unemployment in the United Kingdom, or the monthly claimant count; and if they were validated by the director of statistics in his Department.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythCharts 4A and 4B in "The UK Approach" show unemployment rates which use the claimant count as the numerator. Figures based on the claimant count have the advantage of being monthly, up-to-date and available for a long run of years. The charts used figures from published sources. The director of statistics is responsible for the quality of all Employment Department labour market statistics published by the Government Statistical Service.
The latest available labour force survey results, for autumn 1993, show a seasonally adjusted International 292W Labour Organisation unemployment rate for Great Britain of 10.1 per cent.—close to the rate shown in chart 4B for that period.
§ Mr. PrescottTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many changes to the method of calculating the monthly unemployment register and the claimant count there have been since the Government took office in 1979; and what has been the statistical effect on the count of each change at the time the change took place.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythI refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Holborn and St. Pancras (Mr. Dobson) on 26 October 1992,Official Report, column 496. Since that reply was given there has been one additional discontinuity.
In February 1994 the Northern Ireland system for administering unemployment benefits was fully integrated into the computerised national unemployment benefit system—NUBS—which has been operating throughout the rest of the United Kingdom since 1983. The changeover eliminated an overcount in the Northern Ireland figures leading to a slight downward revision of about 1,500 to the unadjusted level of claimant unemployment in Northern Ireland, and likewise to the United Kingdom figures.
Appropriate revisions have been made for past periods to maintain the consistency of the seasonally adjusted series. Full details are given on page S16 of the April Employment Gazette, which is available in the Library.
§ Mr. PrescottTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment what assessment he has made of the accuracy of the labour force survey as a representation of the level of unemployment in the United Kingdom; and what plans he has to improve it.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythAs with any sample survey, estimates from the labour force survey are subject to sampling variability and "confidence intervals" are published with the results.
The LFS measures unemployment according to the ILO definition, which is used extensively by industrial countries throughout the world and by international organisations. While EC regulations require all member states to conduct an annual LFS, Britain has opted to conduct the survey on a quarterly basis to ensure more up-to-date results.
Official statisticians are always seeking ways of improving the quality and speed of publication of their surveys. For example, the introduction of computer assisted interviewing in the LFS has led to higher data quality and an improvement in the speed of publication of the results to just over three months from the end of the survey period.
§ Mr. PrescottTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is his definition of the claimant count; and what assessment he has made of the claimant count as an accurate measure of the level of unemployment.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythThe monthly claimant unemployment count covers all those people claiming unemployment-related benefits, that is unemployment benefit, income support or national insurance credits at Employment Service local offices, who declare for each day they claim that they are unemployed, capable of work, available for work and actively seeking employment. 293W Students claiming benefit during a vacation and who intend to return to full-time education, and temporarily stopped workers, are excluded.
The count is accurate at both national and local level because it is a by-product of the system for paying unemployment-related benefits and is a 100 per cent. count. Both the claimant count measure of unemployment and the internationally comparable measure produced by the labour force survey have shown similar trends over recent years and, since spring 1992, the two measures have been at similar levels.
§ Mr. PrescottTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment (1) what was the estimate of the level of unemployment in the United Kingdom in(a) February 1994 and (b) February 1979;
(2) what was the seasonally adjusted unemployment claimant count for February for (a) the United Kingdom and (b) the regions in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland; and what were the comparable figures on the current series with the figures for February 1979.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythThe information requested is available from the NOMIS database in the Library.
§ Mr. PrescottTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment what assessment he has made of the cost to increase the frequency of the labour force survey from every quarter to every month; and if he will do so.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythThe existing quarterly labour force survey costs about £8 million per year. Although no detailed assessment has been made, to increase the survey's frequency to every month, while maintaining the sample size, would lead to an approximately threefold increase in the survey's costs.
A switch to a LFS providing estimates for individual months would require a re-design of the existing quarterly survey, which would take up to two years to implement.
§ Mr. PrescottTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment what was the seasonally adjusted figure published for registered unemployment for February 1979 using the series existing in February 1979 for(a) the United Kingdom and (b) the regions in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythPrior to 1982 the monthly unemployment figures were based on the number of registrants at jobcentres, not all of whom were claiming benefits. When registration at a jobcentre became voluntary and threatened the integrity of the count the basis of the figures was changed to become a count of those claiming unemployment-related benefits at Employment Service local offices—formerly unemployment benefit offices. The figures given in the table relate to the former basis and are not comparable with the consistent, seasonally adjusted, claimant count figures for the same period.
294W
Seasonally adjusted registered unemployment—February 1979 Region Level South East 286,300 Greater London 140,800 East Anglia 33,500 South West 97,300 West Midlands 121,000 East Midlands 75,200 Yorkshire and Humberside 117,900
Region Level North West 196,200 North 115,100 Wales 86,000 Scotland 173,700 Northern Ireland 60,600 United Kingdom 1,362,500