Unemployment (Hansard, 29 July 1997)

§ Mrs. Liddell

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the chief executive of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Tim Holt to Mr. Peter Luff, dated 29 July 1997: The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asked me to reply as Director of the Office for National Statistics to your recent question on the change in unemployment levels in each former parliamentary constituency in Great Britain. The measure of unemployment, derived from the quarterly Labour Force Survey (LFS), is defined on a consistent and internationally recognised basis set out by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and counts as unemployed people who are: a) without a job; b) available to start work within the next two weeks and c) have either looked for work in the last four weeks or are waiting to start a job already obtained. However, largely because it is a sample survey, information is not available from the LFS in as much geographical detail as from the claimant count measure described below. ONS also publishes the monthly claimant count, which is based on the administrative system and includes all people claiming unemployed-related benefits (i.e. Jobseekers Allowance, Income Support or National Insurance credits) at Employment Service offices on the day of the monthly count, who on that day had signed on as unemployed and available to do any suitable work. Essentially, all people who attend an Employment Service office to sign are counted, irrespective of whether they are actually receiving benefit. The information you have requested is only available from the claimant count, as the Labour Force Survey does not give details down to constituency levels as explained. Information on the levels of claimant count by former Parliamentary Constituency are based on the 1981 Census which are only available up to March 1996. Parliamentary Constituency data from April 1996 were based on the new 1991 Census. All this information can be obtained from the NOMIS database at the House of Commons Library.