§ Mr. Roger WilliamsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the amount of 281W (a) aspartame, (b) monosodium glutamate and (c) saccharine imported into the UK in processed foods in each year since 1989. [172348]
§ John HealeyHM Customs and Excise are responsible for the collection of data on imports. It is not possible to identify the amount of these products imported into the UK in processed foods from the data held.
§ Ms Dari TaylorTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many job vacancies there were in Stockton South in(a) 1997 and (b) 2003. [171464]
§ Ruth KellyThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Ms Dari Taylor, dated 11 May 2004:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question about job vacancies in Stockton South. (171464)
According to Jobcentre Plus administrative records, the number of unfilled vacancies in the Middlesbrough and Stockton travel-to-work area was 1,830 on average during 1997. This represents only a proportion of all the vacancies available, as not all vacancies are notified to Jobcentres.
Figures are not available for Stockton South 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Jobcentre vacancy statistics were withdrawn from National Statistics in September 2001 as a result of distortions to the data, which occurred following the introduction of new administrative procedures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.
§ Ms Dari TaylorTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the level of unemployment was in Stockton South in each year since 1997. [171468]
§ Ruth KellyThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from John Pullinger to Ms Dari Taylor, dated 11 May 2004:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about unemployment. I am replying in his absence. (171468)
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) compiles statistics of unemployment from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) following International Labour Organisation definitions. However, the LFS sample size is too small to give a reliable picture of changes over time of unemployment in the Stockton South Constituency.
ONS also compiles statistics of those claiming Jobseeker's Allowance (ISA) for local areas including parliamentary constituencies.
The table as follows gives the annual average number of JSA claimants for the Stockton South constituency for each year since 1997.
282W
Annual average number of JSA claimants Stockton South constituency, 1997–2003 Number of claimants 1997 3,201 1998 2,756
Annual average number of JSA claimants Stockton South constituency, 1997–2003 Number of claimants 1999 2,780 2000 2,575 2001 2,183 2002 2,032 2003 1,884