§ Mr. Andrew MacKayTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment whether he intends making changes in the way he answers parliamentary questions on labour market statistics.
§ Mr. HowardFrom the start of next Session, any parliamentary question asking for more than 10 figures, and for which all of the required statistical data are on the NOMIS database, will be answered by referring the questioner to NOMIS—which can be accessed on-line by House of Commons Library staff. It seems sensible for the established principle of referring to published sources to be extended to cover the computer databases on which some of the more detailed labour market statistics are held. It is good resource management to refer to information which is publicly available when the effort has already been made to provide an easily accessible, up-to-date and accurate computer database. I know that NOMIS fully meets these criteria, not least by the use that Members of Parliament have made of it since access from the Library was introduced in July 1984.