§ Sir J. Leechasked the Minister of Labour whether, in view of the fact that unemployment totals include 500,000 persons whose wages and normal conditions of employment provide for short temporary periods of unemployment, 100,000 retired persons not seeking employment, 250,000 persons unemployable for physical or other reasons, and 100,000 who refuse training and/or transfer into employments awaiting them with satisfactory conditions and wages, he will in future show that the total for whom there is no employment is 1,000,000 less than the published total?
§ Mr. Lennox-BoydMost of the points raised by my hon. Friend have been dealt624W with in a reply which I gave earlier to-day to the hon. Member for Windsor (Mr. Somerville) and in replies on 4th and nth May, 1939, and 19th May, 1936, to the hon. Members for Leicester, East (Mr. Lyons), Lincoln (Mr. Liddall) and Southampton (Mr. Craven-Ellis) respectively, of which I am sending him copies. On the subject generally I would observe that the unemployment statistics purport to give merely the number of persons who registered themselves as unemployed and seeking employment on particular dates and, I believe, do this quite accurately.