§ Mr. Freudasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many persons of 18 years of age and under there are in the parliamentary constituency of the Isle of Ely who have never had a job; and if he will provide comparable figures for 1977, 1978 and 1979.
§ Mr. Jim Lester[pursuant to his reply, 26 November 1980]: The following table gives for November 1978, November 1979 and November 1980 the numbers of unemployed young people aged 18 years and under who had not been in employment since completing full-time 228W education. Information for this age range is not available for 1977. The figures relate to the area covered by the Ely, March and Wisbech employment offices, which closely corresponds to the parliamentary constituency of the Isle of Ely.
November 1978 61 November 1979 43 November 1980 (provisional) 89 NoteThe figures for November 1979 and November 1980 are not strictly comparable with those for November 1978 because of the introduction, in September 1979, of fortnightly attendance and payment of benefit. Estimates by age or for local areas are not available but for the country as a whole the monthly figures for all unemployed are about 20,000 or 1½ per cent. higher than under weekly attendance.
The youth opportunities programme is available to help unemployed young people, and my right hon. Friend announced on 21 November 1980 that the Government have decided to expand YOP from 250,000–260,000 places in the current year to 430,000–440,000 places in 1981–82. The programme will focus particularly on the groups of young people in the immediate post-school years.