§ Q12. Mr. Biffenasked the Prime Minister if he will remove from the unemployment statistics the number of those who would be difficult to place in employment on personal grounds, and transfer the responsibility for the maintenance of statistics regarding them from the Minister of Labour to the Minister of Social Security, and so record a more realistic figure of unemployed.
§ The Prime MinisterNo. Although a not inconsiderable proportion of those registered as unemployed are and always have been difficult to place for the reasons stated by the hon. Gentleman, I think any change in the basis of our statistics of unemployment at the present time would be likely to give rise to confusion and misunderstanding.