§ Mr. Frank Fieldasked the Secretary of State for Social Services why, in answer to the hon. Member for Birkenhead on 15 May, Official Report column 527, the total number of unemployed claimants in the city of Liverpool in November 1985 was given as 32,100 when figures published by the Department of Employment for the same date gave a total of 56,421.
§ Mr. Major[pursuant to his reply, 14 July 1986, c. 418]: The figures published by the Department of Employment were for the city of Liverpool local authority area. Figures for unemployed claimants receiving different types of social security benefits are available on a different basis, that is, for individual unemployment benefit offices whose boundaries are not conterminous with local authority boundaries.
The answer given to the hon. Member on 15 May was therefore based on figures for unemployment benefit offices within the Liverpool area. However, in checking these figures it has been discovered that four ofices were mistakenly omitted from them. I am grateful to the hon. Member for pointing out this discrepancy and express my apologies to him for the error.
The corrected figures are as follows:
Liverpool City Council (Thousands) UB UB & SA SA NIL Total 1979 8.9 1.9 21.0 4.1 36.0 1980 12.7 2.9 24.6 3.7 44.0 1982 10.5 3.8 37.1 5.4 56.7 1983 9.7 3.3 41.3 4.4 58.7 1985 8.4 2.5 41.5 5.2 57.6 Figures for 1981 and 1984 are not available because of industrial action.
Source: Quarterly count of unemployed claimants.