§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people aged 18 to 24 were unemployed for more than six months in each year since May 1992 in the Buckingham constituency. [17847]
§ 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 26 November 2001:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your parliamentary question on the number of people aged 18 to 24 years who were unemployed for more than six months for each year since May 1992 in the constituency of Buckingham. (17847)The Office for National Statistics (ONS) compiles statistics for unemployment from surveys following the internationally standard International Labour Organisation definition. However, for the Buckingham parliamentary constituency the survey sample size is too small to provide estimates. 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.Prior to January 1996 comparable figures for earlier years are not available on the same geographical basis. Information on computerised claims by age and duration for parliamentary constituencies from January 1996 were based on the ward boundaries of the 1991 census while figures before are based on the ward boundaries of the 1981 census and are available from June 1985 to January 1996.The information requested is given in the attached table
Claimant aged 18 to 24 claiming for six months or more in the Buckingham Parliamentary Constituency for each May 1992 to May 2001 (Computerised claims only) 18 to 24 May 1992 187 May 1993 217 May 1994 140 May 1995 113 May 1996 79 May 1997 38 May 1998 24 May 1999 11 May 2000 5 May 2001 1