§ Mr. Adleyasked the Paymaster General if he will make a statement on the compilation of statistics by his Department in so far as they relate to comparisons with other EEC countries.
§ Mr. LangMost regular labour market statistics in the United Kingdom are collected according to national definitions and methods of compilation, as they are in other EC countries.
For example, monthly unemployment statistics in most member countries are based on national registration systems, and are not comparable. (See "Definitions of Registered Unemployed: 1984" published by the Statistical Office of the European Communities (SOEC)). Statistics on the numbers of people in employment are also compiled by each member country from national sources, and while these are normally based to some extent on recognised international definitions they are still not fully comparable. (See "Employment and Unemployment: 1985" published by SOEC).
Information on the labour force is, however, also obtained from the annual labour force survey, a sample survey based on household interviews, which is conducted along similar lines in all EC countries. This provides much information eg on employment and unemployment on a comparable basis (see "Labour Force Sample Survey: Methods and Definitions: 1985" published by SOEC).