The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated March 2009:"As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Questions asking how many people aged 16-24 were unemployed in (a) Braintree constituency (b) Essex and (c) England in each year since 1997; and what proportion of those ""claiming Jobseeker's allowance in (a) Braintree constituency (b) Essex and (c) England were female in each of the last 5 years. (264443, 264445)""The Office for National Statistics (ONS) compiles unemployment statistics for local areas from the Annual Population Survey (APS) and its predecessor the annual Labour Force Survey (LFS) following International Labour Organisation (ILO) definitions.""Table 1 shows the number of people aged 16-24, resident in Braintree constituency, Essex and England who were unemployed in each year since 1997. Estimates for Braintree parliamentary constituency and for Essex, for the majority of the periods requested, can be derived from APS and annual LFS at the level of geography requested. However, due to the small sample sizes at this level of detail, the estimates are considered too unreliable for practical purposes and have not been provided.""Estimates for July 2007 to June 2008 have also been provided as this is the most recent for which figures are available.""Table 2 shows the percentage of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance who were female in January of each of the last five years for the geographies requested." Table 1. Number of unemployed persons aged 16-24 resident in Braintree constituency, Essex and England Thousand 12 months ending: Essex England February 1998 — 504 February 1999 — 468 February 2000 — 448 February 2001 — 435 February 2002 — 417 February 2003 14 449 February 2004 — 455 March 2005 — 460 March 2006 — 522 March 2007 — 564 March 2008 — 553 June 2008¹ ***14 *563 '—' = Figures are disclosive or statistically unreliable. ¹ Coefficients of Variation have been calculated for the latest period as an indication of the quality of the estimates. See Guide to Quality below. Guide to Quality: The Coefficient of Variation (CV) indicates the quality of an estimate, the smaller the CV value the higher the quality. The true value is likely to lie within +/- twice the CV—for example, for an estimate of 200 with a CV of 5 per cent. we would expect the population total to be within the range 180-220. Key Coefficient of Variation (CV) (%) Statistical Robustness * 0 = CV<5 Estimates are considered precise ** 5 = CV <10 Estimates are considered reasonably precise *** 10 = CV <20 Estimates are considered acceptable **** CV 20 Estimates are considered too unreliable for practical purposes Source: Annual Population Survey/Annual Labour Force Survey Table 2: Percentage of persons claiming jobseeker's allowance who were female Percentage As at January each year Braintree Essex England 2004 33 29 25 2005 31 29 26 2006 32 29 26 2007 30 29 27 2008 32 30 27 2009 28 28 26 Source: Jobcentre Plus administrative data