§ Mr. VazTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for South-East Cambridgeshire (Mr. Paice) on 3 June,Official Report column 151, if he will make a statement on the number of 18 to 24-year-olds registered as unemployed, and the estimate of the number of 18 to 24-year-olds by the ILO Labour Force Survey; and what action he proposes in respect of these statistics. [3076]
§ Mr. Andrew SmithThe latest LFS figures are for Winter 1996–97 and show the number of ILO unemployed 18 to 24-year-olds in the UK to be 498,500. The most comparable claimant count figures are for January 1997, and stood at 479,000. The Government's 553W commitment, in its New Deal programme, is to give opportunities for work, education or training to 250,000 18 to 24-year-olds who have been unemployed for more than six months. The New Deal is also part of a wider programme aimed at helping people on welfare—including those on other benefits as well as the claimant unemployed—back into work.