HC Deb 16 December 2002 vol 396 c621W
Mr. Goodman

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many(a) people over retirement age, (b) children, (c) women, (d) members of ethnic minorities and (e) others in the Wycombe constituency lived below the poverty line in each of the past five years. [85660]

Malcolm Wicks

The requested information is not available. Poverty and social exclusion are complex and multi-dimensional problems, which affect many aspects of people's lives. They cannot be measured using a single indicator. Our long-term strategy to tackle the underlying causes of poverty is set out in our recently published "Opportunity for all—fourth annual report", which provides detailed analysis on a range of indicators of poverty and social exclusion. Unfortunately, not all indicators can be broken down to the constituency level—due to sample size limitations. The National Statistics website, www.statistics.gov.uk, provides a comprehensive source of information that is available at the constituency level.

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