§ Mr. ChallenTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people in the Morley and Rothwell constituency are benefiting from the minimum wage. [10278]
§ Ruth KellyThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
630WLetter from Len Cook to Mr. Colin Challen, dated 30 October 2001:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question about the number of people in the Morley and Rothwell constituency who are benefiting from the national minimum wage (NMW). (10278)The Office for National Statistics has published estimates of the number of jobs paid at less than NMW rates for 1998. 1999, and 2000. These estimates are based on an improved methodology using data from the New Earning Survey (NES) and Labour Force Survey (LFS). This methodology provides the best estimates for the number of jobs in the UK paid below low hourly rate thresholds and was developed to overcome the deficiencies inherent in using the NES and LFS separately for measuring low pay.Estimates for the United Kingdom and Government Office Regions are posed on the National Statistics website at:www.statistics.gov.uk/nsbase/themes/labour_market/nmw_lowpay_tables.aspEstimates for Parliamentary Constituencies of numbers of jobs paid below NMW rates are not available on the basis of the methodology applied for producing the national and regional level figures.
§ Mr. CoxTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many people employed in the agricultural sector have benefited from the introduction of the national minimum wage; [10276]
(2) how many (a) men and (b) women are paid the national minimum wage in the UK. [10946]
§ Ruth KellyThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from John Pullinger to Mr. Tom Cox, dated 30 October 2001:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent questions about the number of people in the agriculture sector who have benefited from the introduction of the national minimum wage (NMW) and the number of men and women who are paid the NMW in the UK. I am replying in his absence. (10276, 10946)The latest available information is for spring 2000. At that time the NMW for people aged 22 or over was £3.60 per hour. Estimates based on the New Earnings Survey and Labour Force Survey show that in spring 2000 there were 150,000 men and 440,000 women aged 22 or over earning between £3.60 and £3.70 per hour.The estimates requested for the agriculture sector are not available as the sample size is too small for these to be reliable.