§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will provide a breakdown of the average monthly flow from the unemployment count of claimants aged 18 to 24 and unemployed for(a) every six months from April 1993 to May 1997 and (b) each year under the New Deal. [20461]
§ Ruth KellyThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. John Bercow, dated 5 December 2001:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your parliamentary question regarding average monthly flow from the claimant count for people aged 18 to 24 years. (20461)The Office for National Statistics (ONS) compiles statistics for unemployment from surveys following the internationally standard International Labour Organisation definition. ONS also compiles statistics of claimants of unemployment-related benefits. The claimant count consists of all people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance or National Insurance credits at Employment Service local offices. They must declare that they are out of work, capable of, available for and actively seeking work during the week in which the claim is made.Information on the levels of computerised claims by age can be obtained from the Nomis® database at the House of Commons Library. Computerised claims do not include clerical claims which currently make up about one per cent. of the total claimant count.