§ Mr. ByersTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what percentage of 18 to 24-year-olds in the constituency of South-East Cambridgeshire are unemployed; and if he will make a statement. [980]
§ Mr. Paice[holding answer 29 October 1996]: The Office for National Statistics does not provide claimant unemployment rates by age below national level, and considers that sample sizes in an area as small as a parliamentary constituency would be too small for reliable estimates of unemployment to be made from the quarterly labour force survey. However, data from the 1991 census show an unemployment rate of 7.7 per cent. for 18 to 24-year-olds in the constituency of South-East Cambridgeshire.
I am grateful to the hon. Member for acknowledging his error in stating—Official Report, 22 May 1996, column 274—that one in four 18 to 24-year-olds in South-East Cambridgeshire are unemployed. I am happy to accept that his misleading remark was made accidentally.