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Labour Statistics
Mr. O'Hara: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many adult males were placed in full-time employment in the month covered by the most recently published statistics on unemployment.
Mr. Oppenheim: Past surveys indicate that the majority of people who leave unemployment go into jobs.
Mr. Gallie: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is the current figures for unemployment (a) in the United Kingdom and (b) in other European Union countries and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Portillo: The United Kingdom unemployment rate is lower than that for all EU countries except Portugal and Luxembourg. Details are provided in the following table:
Seasonally adjusted unemployment rates in EU
countries
|Latest Month
---------------------------------------------------
Belgium |10.1 (September)
Denmark | 9.8 (September)
Germany<1> | -
Greece<2> | -
Spain |21.9 (September)
France |11.3 (September)
Ireland |17.5 (September)
Italy |11.9 (September)
Luxembourg | 3.4 (September)
Netherlands | 9.9 (August)
Portugal | 6.0 (September)
United Kingdom | 9.0 (September)
EC Average |10.7 (September)
Notes:
<1> No ILO rate available for unified Germany.
<2> Only 1991 annual average figures available for
Greece.
Source:
Statistical Office of the European Community
Unemployment Bulletin.
Mr. McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many people were employed regionally and nationally for each year since 1979 for less than eight hours per week; and to what extent they are counted by his Department as being in work.
Mr. Oppenheim: This information could be provided from the labour force survey only at a disproportionate cost. Data from 1984 onwards may be obtained via the Quantime LFS service available in the Library.
The definition of employment used by the LFS follows the guidelines of the International Labour Organisation. This counts as "in employment" everyone who did at least one hour of paid work in the reference week.
Mr. McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment (1) what were the median and modal age by gender, both regionally and nationally, of those workers with two or more part-time jobs aged (a) 21 to 24 years, (b) 25 to 34 years, (c) 35 to 54 years and (d) 55 years and over in each year since 1979;
(2) what were the regional and national numbers of jobless two-adult households who have been without work for (a) six months, (b) one year and (c) two years and over in each year since 1979 to date;
(3) if he will list the numbers of unemployed, both regionally and nationally, for white collar occupations, in each year since 1979.
Mr. Oppenheim: This information could be provided from the labour force survey only at a disproportionate cost. Data from 1984 onwards may be obtained via the Quantime LFS service available in the Library.
Mr. Harry Greenway: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many people in the United kingdom are in work, as a percentage of the total population of working age; and what are the comparable figures for the other G7 countries.
Mr. Oppenheim: The information is given in the following table:
Total employment as a percentage
of the population aged 15 to 64
in the G7 nations; 1992<1>
|Per cent.
-----------------------------------
United Kingdom |68
Germany |66
France |60
Italy<2> |56
USA |71
Canada |64
Japan |74
Source:
OECD, except United
Kingdom-Employment Department.
<1> 1992 is the latest year for
which comparable data are
available.
<2> Aged 14 to 64 years.
Mr. Hall: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what proportion of part-time jobs are taken by women with an earning partner.
Mr. Oppenheim: Latest estimates from the spring 1994 labour force survey for Great Britain show that 58 per cent. of the people whose main job was part-time were women with a partner in employment.
Sir Michael Neubert: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many people in the United Kingdom are in work, as a proportion of the total population of working age; and what are the figures in other major EU countries.
Mr. Oppenheim: The information is given in the following table:
Total Employment as a
Percentage of the
Population
aged 15 to 64
in the major EU
Countries: 1992<1>
-------------------------
United Kingdom
Germany
France
Italy<2>
Source:
OECD, except United
Kingdom-Employment
Department.
<1> 1992 is the latest
year for which
comparable data are
available.
<2> Aged 14 to 16 years.
Mr. MacShane: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment (1) what was (a) the number of adult male part-time workers in Great Britain in April 1993 and (b) the proportion of those workers whose earnings, excluding overtime, fell below (i) £5.88 per hour, (ii) £5.53 per hour, (iii) £4.15 per hour, (iv) £4 per hour, (v) £3.50 per hour, (vi) £3 per hour and (vii) £2.50 per hour;
(2) if he will list the proportions of manual, non-manual and all full-time (a) male and (b) female employees earning less per week than (i) £221.50, (ii) £208.53, (iii) £156.40, (iv) £150.80, (v) £131.95 and (vi) £94.25 excluding overtime payments (1) by standard economic region, (2) for Great Britain as a whole and (3) for Northern Ireland;
(3) what was (a) the number of adult female part-time workers in Great Britain in April 1993 and (b) the proportion of those workers whose earnings, excluding overtime, fell below (i) £5.88 per hour, (ii) £5.53 per hour, (iii) £4.15 per hour, (iv) £4 per hour, (v) £3.50 per hour, (vi) £3 per hour and (vii) £2.50 per hour; (4) if he will list the proportion of (i) full-time employees earning less per week than (a) £221.50, (b) £208.53, (c) £156.40, (d) £150.80, (e) £131.95, (f) £113.10 and (g) £94.25 excluding overtime payments and (ii) part-time employees earning less per hour than (1) £5.88 per hour, (2) £5.53 per hour, (3) £4.15 per hour, (4) £4 per hour, (5) £3.50 per hour, (6) £3 per hour and (7) £2.50 excluding overtime payments, indicating (i) and (ii) in relation to (I) Great Britain as a whole, (II) each county in England, (III) each county in Wales, (IV) each London borough and Greater London as a whole and (V) each regional authority and borough in Scotland.
Mr. Oppenheim: As the information is contained in a number of tables, I will write to the hon. Member and place a copy in the Library.
Mr. Byers: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many workers are on (a) part-time contracts and (b) short-term full-time contracts; and, for
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each category, how many are (i) female and (ii) male; and if he will further break down the figures by standard region.Mr. Oppenheim: Information is available from the labour force survey on the numbers of part-time and full-time employees who report that they are working under a contract for a fixed period or for a fixed task.
The information for spring 1994 is shown in the following table.
Part-time and full-time employees on fixed-term
contracts
Thousands not seasonally
adjusted
Part-time Full-time
|Males |Females|Males |Females
------------------------------------------------------
South East |18 |78 |93 |65
-Greater
London |<1>- |29 |36 |30
-rest of SE |11 |49 |57 |36
East Anglia |<1>- |<1>- |11 |<1>-
South West |<1>- |15 |16 |15
West
Midlands |<1>- |18 |19 |13
East Midlands |<1>- |18 |14 |11
Yorkshire
and
Humberside |<1>- |14 |31 |19
North West |<1>- |23 |27 |22
North |<1>- |12 |23 |10
Wales |<1>- |<1>- |11 |<1>-
Scotland |<1>- |17 |34 |20
Northern
Ireland |<1>- |<1>- |<1>- |<1>-
Great Britain |53 |211 |280 |189
United
Kingdom |54 |214 |284 |192
<1> Under 10,000 and so not shown
Mr. Redmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if children under 15 currently working in factories and businesses are included in his Department's statistics as employed persons.
Mr. Oppenheim: The labour force survey measure of employment only includes persons of age 16 years and over. Employment estimates derived from the employer-based survey make no reference to the age of the employee.
Mrs. Peacock: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment to what he attributes the current changes in unemployment figures; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Oppenheim [holding answer 28 November 1994]: Unemployment has fallen faster in the United Kingdom over the past year than in any other EU country, and has fallen by over 450,000 since recovery in the labour market began. On internationally comparable figures, released last week by the Statistical Office of the European Communities, the unemployment rate in the United Kingdom is nearly two percentage points below the EU average. I attribute this to the pursuit of sound macro- economic policies promoting strong economic growth with low inflation, active measures to help people back to work and the avoidance or removal of unnecessary regulations that obstruct enterprise, competition, and job creation.
Youth Training
Mr. Heppell: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what changes there have been in the number
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of 16 and 17-year-olds on youth training schemes, nationally, regionally and in Nottingham in the last year.Mr. Paice: The information requested is given in the following table.
Youth training (including Youth Credits) change in in-training
from August 1993 to August 1994
|Change
|15 August |14 August |over period
|1993 |1994 |(percentage)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Greater Nottingham TEC |4,160 |3,870 |-7
South East |25,000 |26,200 |+5
London |19,200 |18,200 |-5
Eastern |20,200 |21,900 |+8
South West |19,800 |18,000 |-9
West Midlands |27,100 |27,400 |+1
East Midlands |23,000 |22,600 |-2
Yorkshire and Humberside |28,700 |27,200 |-5
Merseyside |12,400 |13,500 |+9
North West |35,200 |37,500 |+7
North East |20,800 |18,700 |-10
Wales |15,100 |14,200 |-6
Scotland |33,500 |31,900 |-5
Great Britain |280,000 |277,100 |-1
Source:
TEC operating agreement-Annex J Scottish and Welsh Offices.
Mr. Tredinnick: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many young people in the United Kingdom have either education or training places; and what the figures were in 1979.
Mr. Portillo: Some 1.1 million 16 and 17-year-olds in the United Kingdom were participating in education and training in spring 1994 compared with 1 million in spring 1984--the earliest year for which information is available. This represents an increase from 54 per cent. to 84 per cent. of the age group as a whole.
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment when he next expects to meet the chairman of the Construction Industry training board to discuss youth training on construction sites.
Mr. Paice: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State met the Construction Industry Training Board chairman recently and discussed youth training and other matters. There are no plans to meet him again in the near future.
Older Workers
Mr. David Nicholson: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what initiatives his Department has undertaken to improve the training prospects of older workers.
Miss Widdecombe: Our "Getting On" campaign encourages employers to develop and train their staff regardless of age.
Unemployed older people are eligible for all the Government's employment and training programmes according to normal criteria.
Priority Suppliers Scheme
Mr. Thurnham: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is the latest position on the priority suppliers scheme.
Miss Widdecombe: The Government were forced to abolish the priority suppliers scheme because it was
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incompatible with EC law. The European Commission has confirmed that the PSS was illegal and could not be continued. The Government undertook to discuss the matter with the European Commission and to reintroduce a scheme if that was possible.In the discussions with the European Commission the Government have sought to establish whether any preferential purchase arrangements for Remploy and other sheltered workshops can be operated within the law.
We have just concluded our talks with the Commission. A new scheme can be introduced but it has to be different from the PSS in two ways. First, to conform with treaty requirements, access to the scheme has to be extended beyond British suppliers to comparable ones in every country of the European Union and the European economic area. "Comparability" will be defined by reference to eligibility criteria which broadly reflect our own criteria for funding supported workshops. Those include requirements that the organisation be a non-profit-distributing body; at least 50 per cent. of its work force must be severely disabled employees engaged in work which makes a genuine contribution to the organisations's business; and employees must be paid the same or closely equivalent wages as non-disabled employees doing the same or similar work. To enable workshops in all member states-- which satisfy these criteria--to register their interest, an announcement will be made annually in the EC Official Journal. The second change is that the scheme will have to be confined to contracts below the relevant threshold above which the EC directives--93/36/EEC and 92/50/EEC--and the general agreement on tariffs and trade Government procurement agreement apply. Those thresholds are currently £96,403 for Government supplies contracts and £149,728 for some textiles products purchased by the Ministry of Defence.
The new arrangement, which will be known as the special contracts arrangement, will like its predecessor help eligible supported workshops for severely disabled people to compete for business with United Kingdom Government Departments and their agencies: it will be administered by the Employment Service, which will circulate to Departments and their agencies details of the organisations registered under the scheme, and their products. When awarding contracts covered by this scheme, Departments will be expected to award a contract to an eligible contractor if its tender provides the same value for money as the best rival tender, and provided all other tender requirements are acceptable. Where a tender was unacceptable on price alone there would, as under the previous scheme, be an opportunity to submit a revised tender for part or all of a contract.
Although we believe that the special contracts arrangement will be of some benefit, there remains the more fundamental problem of increasing competitive pressure, particularly in the textiles and clothing trade, from low cost producers beyond the EC. We shall continue to work with Remploy and other supported employers as they adapt to meet the challenges of the changing business environment. The fact that we needed to end the PSS has never put in question the Government's commitment to make payment to Remploy or similar bodies to compensate them for the extra cost of employing disabled people. That is a principle to which we remain committed. The sum of more than £140 million that the Government make
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available for the supported employment programme has never been in doubt.Training and Enterprise Councils
Ms Hodge: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment when he last met representatives of the training and enterprise councils to discuss TEC budgets.
Mr. Paice: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and I regularly meet the TECs representatives to discuss a wide range of topics, including TEC budgets.
Lady Olga Maitland: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what progress is being made with the arrangements to introduce three-year licences for TECs; and if she will make a statement.
Mr. Paice: I am pleased to be able to announce that 12 training and enterprise councils have completed the process of meeting the rigorous standards we set for the award of the new 3-year licence. The licences will be effective from April 1995. The TECs are: Barnsley/Doncaster
HAWTEC--Hereford and Worcester
Humberside
Leicestershire
Lincolnshire
North Derbyshire
North Nottinghamshire
Northumberland
Rotherham
Sheffield
South and East Cheshire
Sunderland City
A number of other TECs are close to completing the process. I expect to make further announcements shortly of TECs to be awarded licences from April 1995.
Our expectation is that the introduction of licensing for all English TECs will take until 1997. Licensing is one part of the contract framework between Government and TECs which is designed to support continuous improvement in their performance, value for money and accountability across all that they do.
To be awarded a licence, a TEC must meet rigorous criteria. These cover the TECs corporate plan and its strategic impact in working with other local bodies, its performance on the main programmes funded by the Government and other areas of its capability as an organisation.
Unemployment
Mr. Simon Coombs: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement about the reduction in unemployment in (a) Britain and (b) other major EU countries.
Mr. Oppenheim: The latest internationally comparable statistics from Eurostat show that the fall in the United Kingdom's unemployment rate over the past year has been greater than in any other country in the European Union.
Statistics and Research
Mr. Key: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how much money his Department will spend this year on statistics and research.
Mr. Oppenheim: The running costs and programme expenditure of statistical services division and economics,
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research and evaluation division in Employment Department headquarters amount to £23.8 million in 1994 95.Not all this total relates to the collection of information or pure research. A significant proportion of the work of the divisions concerned involved the provision of statistical and economic advice and also evaluation.
Crown Enforcement Notices
Dr. Marek: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many inspections have been carried out into Crown premises in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available; and what assessment he has made of the reasons for trends in the number of Crown enforcement notices requiring improvements within the meaning of his answer of 12 July, Official Report , column 535 .
Mr, Oppenheim: Information is not available on the number of inspections of Crown premises. There was a significant reduction in the number of Crown enforcement notices in 1986 87 when Crown immunity was removed from the national health service.
Psychological Testing
Mr. Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what studies his Department has undertaken into the use of psychological testing for employment.
Mr. Oppenheim: In the late 1980s, the Department published the policy document "Assessment Through Psychological Testing". Subsequently, we published the report "Review of Psychometric Tests for Assessment in Vocational Training", which is now maintained by the British Psychological Society.
We have also funded two studies of employers' recruitment practices in relation to young people, which were completed in 1992 and 1993 respectively. These studies "The Selection of Young People by Medium Sized and Large Organisations" and "The Recruitment and Selection of Young People by Small Firms", both included psychological testing among the range of recruitment practices covered.
In addition, we are funding a project in the Tower Hamlets area on psychometric testing and the ethnic minorities. This is currently in progress.
Output-related Funding
Mr. Barron: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment, pursuant to the reply, 21 Novermber, Official Report, column 42, how many representations he has received, and how many were in favour and how many against output-related funding.
Mr. Paice: It is not possible to quantify the number of representations, which have been made from many quarters over many years. Although some representations have drawn attention to potential difficulties, there has been much support, particularly from training and enterprise councils.
European Court
Mr. Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement about the implications for Britain of the judgment of the European
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Court in the case of Raymond van der Elst and the French Office des Migrations Internationale.Mr. Oppenheim: The Employment Department, together with the Home Office, is considering the judgment of the European Court in this case and any implications there may be for the United Kingdom.
Graduates
Mr. McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list numbers and percentages of
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unemployed graduates by subject group since 1979 to date, broken down by gender.Mr. Oppenheim [holding answer 28 November 1994]: The table provides the data requested for alternate years up to 1992 and for 1993. The data have been compiled from annual reports published by the Universities Statistical Record on surveys of the first destinations of new graduates. They refer to the position of graduates at the end of the calender year in which they graduated and they exclude graduates from institutions which did not have university status prior to 1992.
Column 641
Unemployment among new graduates, United Kingdom 1979-80 to 1985-86
Number and
percentages of all
graduates, of known
destination, in
each subject
||9 |group
1979-80 1981-82 1983-84 1985-86
Male/Female |M |F |M |F |M |F |M |F
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Education |Per cent. |3.2 |12.6 |4.8 |12.1 |4.6 |5.2 |4.5 |4.6
|Number |15 |62 |21 |105 |21 |46 |10 |33
Medicine, Dentistry and Health |Per cent. |0.7 |1.0 |0.8 |1.0 |0.6 |1.2 |0.9 |1.1
|Number |23 |21 |27 |23 |20 |30 |26 |32
Engineering and Technology |Per cent. |4.8 |4.2 |8.9 |8.8 |5.5 |5.3 |5.1 |4.7
|Number |401 |20 |786 |58 |496 |42 |376 |32
Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary |Per cent. |8.3 |8.5 |12.4 |16.1 |11.3 |12.8 |5.1 |5.9
Science |Number |65 |36 |96 |67 |88 |55 |34 |29
Science |Per cent. |10.8 |7.6 |17.3 |11.6 |11.7 |8.9 |9.3 |6.1
|Number |1,020 |343 |1,732 |588 |1,223 |483 |875 |319
Administration, Business and Social |Per cent. |10.2 |8.3 |14.0 |11.6 |10.8 |8.2 |7.0 |5.9
Studies |Number |1,005 |515 |1,384 |826 |995 |601 |487 |339
Architecture and other Professional and |Per cent. |6.8 |5.3 |4.1 |6.9 |3.9 |5.2 |2.6 |2.7
Vocational Subjects |Number |46 |15 |26 |24 |25 |20 |18 |6
Language, Literature and Area Studies |Per cent. |15.4 |9.2 |19.1 |13.1 |15.1 |9.9 |11.7 |7.2
|Number |414 |461 |490 |727 |376 |554 |227 |357
Arts other than languages |Per cent. |13.2 |10.1 |22.2 |14.7 |16.3 |11.7 |11.3 |9.0
|Number |361 |297 |609 |481 |434 |370 |288 |237
Multi-disciplinary Studies<1> |Per cent. |11.3 |8.2
|Number |374 |249
Total |Per cent. |8.8 |7.8 |13.3 |11.3 |9.5 |8.2 |7.5 |6.1
|Number |3,350 |1,770 |5,171 |2,899 |3,678 |2,201 |2,715 |1,633
<1> Only available after 1985.
Unemployment among new graduates, United Kingdom 1987-88 to 1992-93
Numbers and
percentage of all
graduates, of known
destinations, in
each subject
group
1987-88 1989-90 1991-92 1992-93
Male/Female |M |F |M |F |M |F |M |F
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Education |Per cent. |2.3 |2.1 |2.7 | 1.9 |5.7 |3.8 |5.4 |4.3
|Number | 7 |19 | 7 | 19 |41 |36 |19 |48
Medicine, Dentistry and Health |Per cent. |0.5 |0.7 |0.7 |0.8 |1.3 |1.6 |1.4 |1.9
|Number |14 |24 |20 |28 |17 |58 |42 |71
Engineering and Technology |Per cent. |3.2 |1.6 |8.1 |5.8 |10.6 |7.9 |10.7 |7.3
|Number |242 |13 |343 |27 |825 |99 |897 |96
Per cent. |4.6 |4.5 |9.34 |5.51 |10.1 |7.88 |9.2 |7.3
Science |Number |31 |24 |47 |30 |55 |39 |51 |39
Science |Per cent. |6.9 |4.6 |5.2 |4.9 |14.9 |9.6 |13.6 |8.6
|Number | 659 |248 |643 |311 |1,593 |644 |1,502 |627
Per cent. |5.5 |4.6 |4.8 |2.6 |10.9 |7.8 |9.7 |6.4
Studies |Number | 411 |289 | 475 |340 |921 |589 |832 |511
Per cent. |1.9 |2.8 |11.2 |8.5 |14.3 |10.2 |10.7 |4.8
Vocational Subjects |Number |12 | 7 |36 | 7 |116 |31 |95 |16
Language, Literature and Area Studies |Per cent. |9.1 |6.0 |11.2 |8.5 |16.1 |10.1 |15.9 |7.9
|Number |173 |291 |223 |383 |335 |536 |357 |454
Arts other than languages |Per cent. |10.5 | 7.3 |9.0 |8.0 |17.5 |10.8 |15.7 |9.4
|Number |287 |205 |295 |230 |536 |355 |521 |338
Multi-disciplinary Studies |Per cent. |8.1 |6.9 |10.4 |7.9 |14.5 |10.9 |14.4 |8.4
|Number |289 |226 |621 |303 |611 |464 |623 |386
Total |Per cent. |5.7 |4.8 | 7.1 |5.6 |12.3 |8.5 |11.6 |7.1
|Number |2,125 |1,346 |2,710 |1,678 |5,050 |2,851 |4,939 |2,586
Maternity Leave
Mr. David Porter: To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is the definition of other contractual benefits besides salary for a woman on 14 weeks maternity leave under regulations in force since 16 October; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Oppenheim [holding answer 28 November 1994]: A woman absent from work on statutory maternity leave is entitled to the benefit of the terms and conditions of employment which would have been applicable to her if she had not been absent, with the exception of remuneration. This is under section 33 of the Employment
Column 644
Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978 as inserted by section 23 of the Trade Union Reform and Employment Rights Act 1993.ENVIRONMENT
Local Authority Debt
Mr. Thurnham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the current level of debt for each local authority in Greater Manchester, the current figure for each year since 1987 88 and the totals for the whole Greater Manchester metropolitan area.
Mr. Robert B. Jones: The information is as follows:
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Outstanding debt at end of year
|£ million
|1987-88 |1988-89 |1989-90 |1990-91 |1991-92 |<1>1992-93|1993-94
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bolton |245 |241 |234 |215 |216 |146 |152
Bury |108 |110 |118 |117 |115 |82 |80
Manchester |1,138 |1,096 |1,129 |1,275 |1,382 |1,326 |1,277
Oldham |279 |287 |292 |274 |274 |242 |242
Rochdale |216 |228 |- |248 |278 |212 |204
Salford |420 |428 |437 |450 |467 |403 |376
Stockport |151 |160 |163 |165 |156 |116 |104
Tameside |224 |217 |219 |248 |262 |186 |183
Trafford |99 |118 |118 |113 |109 |81 |82
Wigan |303 |303 |317 |276 |278 |250 |237
Total |3,183 |3,188 |- |3,381 |3,538 |3,045 |2,937
Note:
In addition, debt inherited from the former Greater Manchester county council amounts to £260
million.
<1> The debt of most housing authorities was reduced in 1992-93 as the result of the commutation
of certain loan charge grants in October 1992.
Sources:
1987-88 to 1989-90-Outstanding loan debt, capital outturn returns.
1990-91 to 1993-94-Total external debt, borrowing and lending surveys and PWLB.
Under-occupation
Mr. Roy Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the extent of under-occupation in (a) the rented and (b) owner-occupied sectors.
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Mr. Alfred Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the extent of under-occupation in the (a) rented and (b) owner-occupied sectors.
Mr. Robert B. Jones: The latest estimates for England are as follows:
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Households with more bedrooms than the bedroom standard 1993-94
Thousands
Number of
bedrooms more than
bedroom standard
Tenure |One |Two |Three or more
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tenants |2,120 |810 |70
Owner-occupiers |5,450 |4,300 |980
These figures are from the 1993-94 survey of English housing and are
subject to sampling error.
Homelessness Data
Mr. Robert Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what research he has done into the accuracy of homelessness data used by his Department in the standard spending assessment formula.
Mr. Robert B. Jones: The Department is currently undertaking research on the impact of the 1991 homelessness code of guidance. One of the areas covered by this research is the consistency of authorities' statistical returns.
Mr. Robert Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what representations he has received from local authorities about the accuracy and appropriateness of using homelessness figures as an indicator within the standard spending assessment formula.
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