§ Mrs. FitzsimonsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many job vacancies there were in the parliamentary constituency of Rochdale in(a) 1997 and (b) 2003. [178543]
§ Ruth KellyThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl to Mrs. Fitzsimons, dated 15 June 2004:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about job vacancies in Rochdale. I am replying in his absence (178543)
According to Jobcentre Plus administrative records, the number of unfilled vacancies in the Rochdale travel-to-work area was 800 on average during 1997. This represents only a proportion of all the vacancies available, as not all vacancies are notified to Jobcentres.
830WFigures are not available for Rochdale alone because the vacancies are allocated to local Jobcentres, not according to constituency boundaries, and because of the practice of notifying some vacancies centrally with one Jobcentre taking vacancies for others in the same district.
Jobcentre vacancy statistics were withdrawn from National Statistics in September 2001 as a result of distortions to the data, which occurred following the introduction of new administrative procedures by Jobcentre Plus. Comparable figures for vacancies in 2003 are therefore unavailable.
Results from the ONS Vacancy Survey were released as National Statistics from July 2003, but are not available for local areas.
§ Mrs. FitzsimonsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many families in the parliamentary constituency of Rochdale have received child tax credit; and what percentage were of Asian origin. [178546]
§ Dawn PrimaroloFor the total number of such families, I refer my hon. Friend to my answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Burton (Mrs. Dean) on 15 March 2004,Official Report, column 98W. Details of the ethnic groups of tax credits claimants are not currently available.
§ Mrs. FitzsimonsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many businesses in the parliamentary constituency of Rochdale have benefited from the 100 per cent. tax exemption for the purchase of computer and internet equipment; and what percentage of those businesses was owned or run by(a) people of Asian origin and (b) women. [178547]
§ Dawn PrimaroloWe regret that the information is not available to estimate the number of businesses in a given constituency which have benefited from the 100 per cent. first year capital allowances for the purchase of information and communication equipment. Neither is any breakdown available from tax records on business ownership by ethnic group or gender.
§ Mrs. FitzsimonsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the annual total public sector expenditure in Rochdale was in(a) 1997–98 and (b) 2003–04. [178552]
§ Ruth KellyHM Treasury annually publishes analyses of public expenditure outturn data by country and region as National Statistics, in chapter 8 of the command paper 'Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses'. The latest edition was published in April 2004 as Cm 6201—Public Expenditure Statistical analyses 2004'.
The ONS have also published a one-off set of experimental statistics of sub regional government accounts for 1998. The link to the article is: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/ theme_other/Regional_Government_Accounts.pdf
However no such information is available for Rochdale in either of these sources, as it is neither published nor collected to this degree of detail.
§ Mrs. FitzsimonsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what the(a) change and (b) percentage change was in full-time permanent jobs in the parliamentary constituency of Rochdale from 1997 to 31 December 2003; [178554]
831W(2) how many new jobs have been created in the parliamentary constituency of Rochdale since 1997; [178556]
(3) how many people were employed in manufacturing-related jobs in the parliamentary constituency of Rochdale (a) on the latest date for which figures are available and (b) in 1997. [178557]
§ Ruth KellyThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mrs. Lorna Fitzsimons, dated 15 June 2004:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Questions about jobs created in Rochdale. (178554, 178556 and 178557)
While statistics of new jobs created are not available explicitly, statistics from surveys enable comparisons to be made of net changes, in numbers of jobs, from year to year.
The attached table shows the information requested, relating to jobs in Rochdale, for 1997 and the latest year available, 2002.
Number of full-time employees and total number of employees1 with workplace in Rochdale parliamentary constituency: 1997 and 2002 Number, per cent Manufacturing Full-Time Total Number of employees 1997 8,700 24,700 36,000 2002 7,200 27,500 39,400 Change from 1997 to 20022 Absolute - 2,900 3,400 Percentage - 10.4 8.7 1 Employee jobs only, not self-employed jobs. 2 The 1997 to 2002 change has been rounded to the nearest hundred separately from rounded levels for 1997 and 2002. Source: 1997; Annual Employment Survey, rescaled 2002; Annual Business Inquiry (ABI).