§ Mr. D. E. Thomasasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what criteria were used, when drawing up his revised regional industrial policy, in relation to the different categories of unemployment, long term unemployment, job opportunities, industrial structure and peripherality, referred to in his statement of 28 November 1984, Official Report, column 942.
§ Mr. TrippierDecisions on the new assisted areas were based on an assessment of each travel-to-work-area's current and future needs for additional employment opportunities. The factors taken into account were those which were both available on a comparable basis throughout Great Britain and significant aids to such an assessment. However, map decisions are not entirely susceptible of statistical treatment, and statistics were therefore used to inform but not to dictate the circumstances.