§ Mr. DobsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment, pursuant to her answer of 27 April,Official Report, column 843, what assessment she has made of the reason for the census in April 1981 recording fewer people unemployed and seeking work that the equivalent figure for the same date produced by her Department.
§ Mr. McLoughlinThe Department's definition of an unemployed person quite reasonably includes the criterion that he or she must be "actively" seeking work. The census of population does not include this criterion, which is why its figures are higher. This was the case in 1981 as well as in 1991.