§ Mr. McFallTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information he has on the employment status of persons convicted of crimes in England and Wales in the last five years for which figures are available.
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§ Mr. Maclean[holding answer 3 February 1994]The information readily available is given in the table and is taken from a special data collection exercise undertaken in a small number of courts to monitor the implementation of the Criminal Justice Act 1991. The statistics are subject to sampling error and may not be representative of all courts in England and Wales. They will also reflect changes in employment status from the date of arrest. Some research studies on this issue were listed in my reply to the hon. Member on 1 February,Official Report, column 650.
Employment status on date of sentence, for persons sentenced in selected courts1 for indictable offences Percentage of total offenders sentenced Employment status on date of sentence July to August 1992 January to February 1993 Currently employed (including self and part time employment) 19 18 Youth or other training scheme 1 1 Unemployed 63 70 Full-time education 3 3 Other 2 2 Not known 11 6 Total number sentenced [=100 per cent.] 3,100 3,600 1Magistrates courts—Bow Street, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff Leicester, Maidstone, Newcastle, Portsmouth and York. Crown court centres—Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Doncaster, Kingston, Knightsbridge, Maidstone, Newcastle, Preston and Wolverhampton.