§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if she will list in theOfficial Report sources of official data produced by (a) the Office for National Statistics and (b) other central and devolved Government agencies for (i) demographic changes, (ii) neighbourhood poverty in postcode areas and (iii) agriculture in the Scottish Borders area between 1991 and 2001. [5093]
§ Mr. Boateng[holding answer 19 July 2001]: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
565WLetter from John Kidgell to Mr. Archy Kirkwood, dated 20 July 2001:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question on the sources of official data produced by (a) the ONS and (b) other central and devolved Government agencies for (i) demographic changes (ii) neighbourhood poverty in postcode areas and (iii) agriculture in the Scottish Borders area between 1991 and 2001 (5093). I am replying in his absence.Statistics that are available on these topics are produced by the Scottish Executive:i. Demographic changesComponents of population change are included in the annual mid-year estimates prepared by the Registrar General for Scotland. The latest estimates are for 2000 and are available from the General Register Office for Scotland Website, in Table 3 at www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/grosweb/grosweb.nsf/pages/mpe00.ii. Neighbourhood povertyThere are two key indices for measuring neighbourhood poverty in postcode areas. Firstly, the long established Carstairs index, which is based on data from the 1991 Census. More recently the Arbuthnott index, which combines Census and updateable information, was developed to assess the deprivation related need for revenue allocations in the NHS in Scotland.The current Scottish Deprivation index, which was revised in 1998, ranks postcode sectors by combining 1991 Census indicators with more recent non-Census indicators of deprivation. It is published by the Stationery Office (ISBN 0748078037).iii. AgricultureSources are the Agricultural and Horticultural Census, from which results are available annually, and the European Union Farm Structure Survey, undertaken in 1995, 1997 and 2000.
§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the sources of official data produced by(a) the Office for National Statistics and (b) other central and devolved Government agencies for unemployment in the travel-to-work areas in the Scottish Borders area between 1991 and 2001. [5092]
§ Mr. Boateng[holding answer 19 July 2001]: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from John Kidgell to Mr. Archy Kirkwood, dated 20 July 2001:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question on the sources of official data for unemployment in travel-to-work areas in the Scottish Borders area between 1991 and 2001 (5092). I have been asked to reply in his absence.The Office for National Statistics (ONS) produces statistics of unemployment by travel-to-work areas from two main sources.The first is the Labour Force Survey (LFS) which provides the Government's preferred measure of unemployment based on the internationally recognised International Labour Organisation (ILO) definition. A person is classified as ILO unemployed if:they are out of work, want a job, have actively sought work in the last four weeks and are available to start work in the next two weeks orthey are out of work, have found a job and are waiting to start it in the next two weeks.Figures for travel-to-work areas are available on an annual basis, from 1996 to 1999. The data are held on the LFS Local Area Database (LADB). 2000 Data are not yet available.The other source is the Claimant Count, which is the count of claimants of unemployment-related benefits—currently the Jobseeker's Allowance and National Insurance credits. Figures for travel-to-work areas have been available on a monthly basis for the Claimant Count since it was introduced in 1983.566WBoth the LFS LADB and Claimant Count data are available on the Nomis database in the House of Commons Library.The Scottish Executive uses only ONS sources of data on unemployment.
§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the sources of official data produced by(a) the Office for National Statistics and (b) other central and devolved Government agencies for (i) economic development, (ii) manufacturing industry and (iii) financial assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises in the Scottish Borders area between 1991 and 2001. [5091]
§ Mr. Boateng[holding answer 19 July 2001]: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from John Kidgell to Mr. Archy Kirkwood, dated 20 July 2001:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question on the sources of official data produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and other Government agencies, for economic development, manufacturing industry and financial assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises in the Scottish Borders area, between 1991 and 2001 (5091). I am replying in his absence.ONS produces data relating to the manufacturing industry broken down into regions, including the Scottish Borders. Between 1991 and 1997 the financial data relating to the manufacturing industry was a part of the Annual Census of Production (ACOP). Data for 1998 and 1999 will be published in the Annual Business Inquiry (part 2) results in the autumn 2001. Data on annual inquiries into distribution and service (1991–1997) were not broken down into regions. Employment data relating to the manufacturing industry in the Scottish Borders was available in the Annual Employment Survey for 1991 to 1997, and in the Annual Business Inquiry (part 1) for 1998 and 1999. The data for 2000 will be released in December 2001. These ONS publications are available in the House of Commons Library. (Data at sub regional level, such as the Scottish Borders, are available from the ONS on request). ONS is not a source of data for financial assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises statistics for the Scottish Borders area.The Scottish Executive holds data on the Scottish Borders on the Scottish Production Database, the Scottish Services Database and the Scottish Corporate Database. Information at the Scottish Borders level is published from all of these sources, and they all contain data collected within the Annual Census of Production, and the Annual Inquiries into Distribution and Services from 1991–1997 and for 1998 from the Annual Business Inquiry. The source of information for official data for the Regional Selective Assistance, Invest for Growth, SMART and SPUR grant schemes is the SAMIS database. This database is DTI owned.