§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement explaining the cause of the recent error in the jobless totals for April, May and June for various parts of the United Kingdom, including the Borders region in Scotland; if he will ensure that the errors will not cause prejudice to the areas concerned in assessing entitlement to Government assistance; and if he will take steps to ensure that such errors will not occur again.
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§ Mr. LeeThe error in the jobless totals in the Borders region of Scotland in April, May and June was the result of a defect in the post code directory used to allocate claimants post codes to the ward in which they live. The Scottish total was not affected. The post code directory is produced by the Office for Population Censuses and Surveys and using information for Scotland coming from the General Register Office for Scotland. The directory was corrected before the July unemployment figures were compiled.
Revised figures for the areas affected have been published so that the original figures will not cause prejudice in assessing entitlement to Government assistance. Checks have been introduced to avoid the recurrence of this error. Also, additional checks have been built into the Department's system for producing unemployment figures.
§ Mr. CryerTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is the current level of(a) unemployment and (b) job vacancies in the travel-to-work area of Bradford; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. LeeThe following information is in the Library. On 8 September 1988, the number of unemployed claimants in the Bradford travel-to-work area was 22,198 or 10.4 per cent. of employees in employment plus the unemployed, compared with 27,522 or 12.7 per cent. a year ago. The September 1988 figures include some over-recording. On 2 September 1988 the number of unfilled vacancies registered at jobcentres which closely correspond to the Bradford travel-to-work area was 1,790 compared with 1,846 a year ago.