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Jobseeker's Allowance
Ms Roseanna Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many people after claiming jobseeker's allowance for a period of 13 weeks have taken (a) part-time employment of less than 25 hours, (b) temporary employment of less than (i) six months and (ii) 12 months and (c) employment paying less than £3 per hour in each month since 7 October 1996. [16125]
Mr. Forth: Responsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service Agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Leigh Lewis to Ms Roseanna Cunningham, dated 18 February 1997:
Ms Cunningham:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) how many people have been subject to benefit disqualification as a result of (a) breaking the labour market conditions, (b) failing to complete the jobseeker's allowance agreement, (c) refusing to attend mandatory training courses and (d) failing to act on the jobseeker's direction in each month since 7 October 1996; [16126]
18 Feb 1997 : Column: 463
Mr. Forth:
Responsibility for the subject of the questions has been delegated to the Employment Service under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Leigh Lewis to Ms Roseanna Cunningham, dated 18 February 1997:
Mr. Hendry:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, pursuant to his answer of 3 February, Official Report, column 466, what level of TEC reserves is available for discretionary expenditure.[16856]
Mr. Paice:
The information provided by training and enterprise councils in England about the level of reserves shown in their statutory accounts for 1995-96 show that the total of £260 million comprised £51 million for investment in capital assets, £86 million for working capital and £123 million for discretionary expenditure. Of the sum available for discretionary expenditure, £102 million was earmarked for planned expenditure in 1996-97 and beyond for economic regeneration and other purposes in line with their corporate and business plans.
Mr. Peter Bottomley:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many and which United Kingdom constituencies have higher unemployment rates than (a) Germany and (b) France. [15673]
Mrs. Angela Knight:
I have been asked to reply.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the chief executive of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
18 Feb 1997 : Column: 464
Letter from Dennis Roberts to Mr. Peter Bottomley dated 18 February 1997:
Mr. Llwyd:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many items of publicity material are produced by his Department in the Urdu language. [14850]
Mr. Soames:
I refer the hon. Member to the reply that I gave him on 10 February, Official Report, column 5. Details of any other material produced by my Department in the Urdu language are not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. David Atkinson:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the effect of his Department's policies on the residents of Bournemouth since 1992, with special reference to the effects of changes in the resources provided in real terms. [14954]
Mr. Arbuthnot:
Information is not available in the form requested by my hon. Friend. However, my Department publishes data on the destination of MOD equipment expenditure on an annual basis in "UK Defence Statistics". Table 1.9 shows expenditure in each of the standard UK regions. A copy of the latest "UK Defence Statistics" is in the Library of the House. Data are not available at a lower level than that published. My hon. Friend may wish to know, however, that my Department has placed over 550 contracts in the Bournemouth area over the last 12 months worth in total in the region of £40 million.
Dr. David Clark:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many suicides there have been in each of the armed services in each year since 1990. [15387]
Mr. Soames
[holding answer 12 February 1997]: The number of coroner verdicts of suicide in each of the armed services, including Gurkhas 1 , for each year since 1990 are:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question regarding the number of people who, after claiming Jobseeker's Allowance for a period of 13 weeks, have taken (a) part-time employment of less than 25 hours, (b) temporary employment of less than (i) 6 months and (ii) 12 months and (c) employment paying less than £3 per hour in each month since 7th October 1996.
Unfortunately, I cannot provide the information you request as it is not available. The reasons for this are:
the Employment Service records employment details where jobseekers have been placed into vacancies advertised through Jobcentres, but no details are available for jobseekers finding employment through alternative means. Therefore I cannot identify total numbers for any of the categories you have requested;
when details of vacancies are taken by the Jobcentre, an indicator is set if the vacancy is temporary but the period of temporary work is not specified;
vacancies taken by the Jobcentre are classified as part time if the vacancy offers up to 30 hours work per week, but no differentiation is made between part time vacancies on the basis of the number of hours;
in general, Jobcentres record the average weekly earnings rather than the hourly rate.
Although the information you have requested is not available, you may find it useful to refer to the Labour Market Trends publication produced by the Office for National Statistics, which provides further Labour Market analysis.
I am sorry that I cannot be more helpful.
(2) how many people have been subject to benefit disqualification for refusing to accept a job offer notified by the Employment Service in each month since October 1996. [16127]
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your questions about how many people in each month since October 1996 have been subjected to benefit disqualification as a result of breaking the labour market conditions, failing to complete the jobseeker's allowance agreement, refusing to attend mandatory training courses, failing to act on the jobseeker's direction, and refusing to accept a job offer notified by the Employment Service. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of the Agency.
Unfortunately information is not available in the form you have requested. The information is not available on a monthly basis but statistics are compiled quarterly. Information about decisions on questions arising on claims for unemployment benefit is contained in a document entitled "Analysis of Adjudication Officer's Decisions", which is published quarterly, and includes information on all the main entitlement questions arising on claims.
The publication for the quarter ending 31 December 1996 will also include decisions given on questions arising on claims for Jobseeker's Allowance. All the main questions will be shown separately, including those relating to the areas referred to above. I expect to publish this analysis by the end of March 1997 and copies will be placed in the Library.
I hope this is helpful.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asked the director of the Office for National Statistics to reply to your recent question on those parliamentary constituencies with a higher rate of unemployment than Germany and France. The Director has asked me to reply in his absence.
Unemployment rates by Parliamentary Constituency are not available for either the claimant count or the internationally comparable ILO measure of unemployment derived from the Labour Force Survey.
| Year | Navy | Army(7) | RAF | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 8 | 20 | 14 | 42 |
| 1991 | 5 | 22 | 7 | 34 |
| 1992 | 6 | 19 | 5 | 30 |
| 1993 | 1 | 18 | 4 | 23 |
| 1994 | 6 | 18 | 5 | 29 |
| 1995 | 1 | 15 | 2 | 18 |
| 1996 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 5 |
| 1997 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Information in the table as at 10 February 1997.
18 Feb 1997 : Column: 465
Environmental Audit (Departmental Buildings)
Mr. Martyn Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the ways in which his Department has demonstrated the ability to improve efficiency and competitiveness through an environmental audit of (a) energy use and (b) waste management within those buildings his Department occupies; and if he will make a statement. [16423]
Mr. Arbuthnot: This answer can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
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