§ Mr. Ernie Rossasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many Treasury forecasts on future levels of unemployment have (a) been made within the past year and (b) been published.
§ Mr. BiffenForecasts of the economy have been and continue to be prepared from time to time as one of many aids to Government policy formulation. But for a number of reasons forecasts of unemployment are subject to particularly wide margins of error. This Government, like their predecessor, therefore do not publish these projections. However, working assumptions for unemployment used in the construction of the Government's public expenditure plans have been published in the relevant White Papers since July 1978.