HC Deb 03 June 1991 vol 192 cc92-3W
Mr. Worthington

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many of the work force in employment in Scotland are thought to be holders of two jobs.

Mr. Allan Stewart

Precise information on the number of people with more than one job included in the published work force in employment estimates is not available.

Mr. Worthington

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many self-employed people there are currently in Scotland; and how this is calculated.

Mr. Allan Stewart

There were an estimated 234,000 self-employed in Scotland in June 1990. Estimates of the number of self-employed, compiled by the Employment Department, are derived from the 1981 census of population and trends in the number of self-employed recorded in the annual labour force surveys conducted in the spring of each year.

Mr. Worthington

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many employees in Scotland are part-time workers.

Mr. Allan Stewart

Successive Governments have always treated part-time and full-time workers equally in the employment count.

In December 1990 there were an estimated 416,000 women part-time employees in employment in Scotland. In September 1989, the latest date for which an estimate is available, there were some 76,000 male employees in employment in part-time work in Scotland.

Mr. Worthington

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many people in Scotland are currently on Government work-related training schemes.

Mr. Allan Stewart

The Scottish civilian work force estimate for December 1990 included an estimated 56,000 on Government work-related training programmes. The estimated numbers in Government work-related training aim to include most youth training and employment training participants with contracts of employment. The estimate is also designed to exclude those youth training and employment training participants whose training does not include work experience with an employer.

Mr. Worthington

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many self-employed people in Scotland pay national insurance contributions.

Mr. Allan Stewart

The latest estimate, from the 1988–89 survey of personal incomes conducted by the Inland Revenue, is that there were 230,000 individuals resident in Scotland with self-employment income, of whom some 120,000 were estimated to be liable to pay both class 2 and class 4 national insurance contributions in 1988–89, while an additional 70,000 were estimated to be liable to pay class 2 contributions only. Tax units with a total income under the PAYE threshold are excluded from these estimates. Some tax units having sufficient income to pay class 4 national insurance contributions, but sufficient personal allowance to prevent them from paying tax also may not be represented in the estimates.