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22 Mar 2004 : Column 655W—continued

Electorate (Lancashire)

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the change in the size of the electorate was in each Lancashire constituency in each year since 1997; and what these figures were as a percentage of the total. [162149]

Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Lindsay Hoyle, dated 22 March 2004:

As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your question concerning the change in size of parliamentary electorate

22 Mar 2004 : Column 656W

for each Lancashire parliamentary constituency since 1997. (162149)
Attached is a table showing the total and percentage change of the number of registered parliamentary electors in each Lancashire constituency over the period 16 February 1996 to 1 December 2003. For completeness the Blackburn and Blackpool South constituencies are also shown. The Office for National Statistics did not publish electoral data for parliamentary constituencies for 2000. A new reference date for electoral registers came into effect on 1 December 2001. Previously the reference date was 16 February. Hence two figures are shown for 2001.
It should be noted that these figures represent the number of registered electors. In many cases, larger decreases may be due to 'cleaning' the registers rather than 'real' drops in the number of electors.
Parliamentary electors on the 1996 to 2003 electoral registers: Lancashire

Constituency	16 February 1996	16 February 1997	16 February 1998	16 February 1999	16 February 2001	1 December 2001	1 December 2002	1 December 2003
Blackpool North and Fleetwood	75,901	75,681	75,371	75,321	74,756	75,552	75,036	75,304
Burnley	67,538	68,219	68,268	68,396	66,934	67,119	65,803	64,659
Chorley	74,621	75,251	76,047	76,468	77,758	78,526	78,510	79,243
Fylde	70,601	72,026	71,921	72,859	73,717	74,402	74,726	75,518
Hyndburn	67,507	67,395	67,291	67,442	66,936	67,123	66,730	66,780
Lancaster and Wyre	77,746	78,942	78,847	78,983	79,495	80,816	81,253	81,456
Morecambe and Lunesdale	68,632	68,624	68,559	68,228	68,070	68,417	68,756	68,240
Pendle	64,077	63,541	63,464	63,333	63,281	63,674	63,935	64,483
Preston	73,226	73,492	73,444	73,088	72,809	72,032	71,614	72,539
Ribble Valley	72,504	73,524	74,023	74,500	75,033	75,607	76,009	76,646
Rossendale and Darwen	70,524	70,435	70,380	70,704	70,884	71,276	70,966	71,494
South Ribble	72,301	72,510	72,865	73,368	74,283	75,012	75,739	75,745
West Lancashire	73,755	73,892	73,900	74,782	73,538	73,594	73,099	73,458
Blackburn	73,896	73,744	73,829	73,967	73,498	73,985	72,669	72,840
Blackpool South	77,538	76,395	75,732	75,614	74,651	75,086	72,512	73,749

22 Mar 2004 : Column 657W

Change in number of parliamentary electors   Change in number

Constituency	16 February 1996 to 16 February 1997	16 February 1997 to 16 February 1998	16 February 1998 to 16 February 1999	16 February 1999 to 16 February 2001	16 February 2001 to 1 December 2001	1 December 2001 to 1 December 2002	1 December 2002 to 1 December 2003
Blackpool North and Fleetwood	-220	-310	-50	-565	796	-516	268
Burnley	681	49	128	-1,462	185	-1,316	-1,144
Chorley	630	796	421	1,290	768	-16	733
Fylde	1,425	-105	938	858	685	324	792
Hyndburn	-112	-104	151	-506	187	-393	50
Lancaster and Wyre	1,196	-95	136	512	1,321	437	203
Morecambe and Lunesdale	-8	-65	-331	-158	347	339	-516
Pendle	-536	-77	-131	-52	393	261	548
Preston	266	-48	-356	-279	-111	-418	925
Ribble Valley	1,020	499	477	533	574	402	637
Rossendale and Darwen	-89	-55	324	180	392	-310	528
South Ribble	209	355	503	915	729	727	6
West Lancashire	137	8	882	-1,244	56	-495	359
Blackburn	-152	85	138	-469	487	-1,316	171
Blackpool South	-1,143	-663	-118	-963	435	-2,574	1,237

Percentage change in parliamentary electors   Percentage change

Constituency	16 February 1996 to 16 February 1997	16 February 1997 to 16 February 1998	16 February 1998 to 16 February 1999	16 February 1999 to 16 February 2001	16 February 2001 to 1 December 2001	1 December 2001 to 1 December 2002	1 December 2002 to 1 December 2003
Blackpool North and Fleetwood	-0.3	-0.4	-0.1	-0.8	1.1	-0.7	0.4
Burnley	1.0	0.1	0.2	-2.1	0.3	-2.0	-1.7
Chorley	0.8	1.1	0.6	1.7	1.0	0.0	0.9
Fylde	2.0	-0.1	1.3	1.2	0.9	0.4	1.1
Hyndburn	-0.2	-0.2	0.2	-0.8	0.3	-0.6	0.1
Lancaster and Wyre	1.5	-0.1	0.2	0.6	1.7	0.5	0.2
Morecambe and Lunesdale	0.0	-0.1	-0.5	-0.2	0.5	0.5	-0.8
Pendle	-0.8	-0.1	-0.2	-0.1	0.6	0.4	0.9
Preston	0.4	-0.1	-0.5	-0.4	-1.1	-0.6	1.3
Ribble Valley	1.4	0.7	0.6	0.7	0.8	0.5	0.8
Rossendale and Darwen	-0.1	-0.1	0.5	0.3	0.6	-0.4	0.7
South Ribble	0.3	0.5	0.7	1.2	1.0	1.0	0.0
West Lancashire	0.2	0.0	1.2	-1.7	0.1	-0.7	0.5
Blackburn	-0.2	0.1	0.2	-0.6	0.7	-1.8	0.2
Blackpool South	-1.5	-0.9	-0.2	-1.3	0.6	-3.4	1.7




Source:

Office for National Statistics

Employer Tax Contributions

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the effects of harmonising employer support on income tax, National Insurance contributions and VAT. [162226]

Dawn Primarolo: The O'Donnell Review of the Revenue Departments was published on 17 March 2004. The Chancellor accepted the Review recommendations in full.

Labour Statistics

Mr. Drew: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what the (a) change and (b) percentage change in the number of full-time jobs in Stroud was from 1997 to 31 December 2003; [162738]

(2) how many people were employed in manufacturing jobs in Stroud in each of the last seven years for which figures are available; and what percentage of the total work force this represented. [162739]

Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. David Drew, dated 22 March 2004:

As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Questions about full time jobs, and manufacturing jobs in Stroud. (162738, 162739)

22 Mar 2004 : Column 658W

Please find attached two tables giving the information requested.

Table A shows the number of full-time and part-time jobs in Stroud Parliamentary Constituency in 1997 and 2002, the latest year for which information is available.

Table B shows the number of people employed in manufacturing jobs in the Stroud Parliamentary Constituency, and these numbers as a percentage of the total number of employees, from 1996 to 2002, the latest year for which information is available.

Table A; Full-time and Part-time employees⁽⁷⁶⁾ in Stroud Parliamentary Constituency: 1997 and 2002Number, per cent

	Full Time	Part Time	Total
Number of employees
1997	23,800	9,900	33,700
2002	23,400	12,000	35,400
Change from 1997 to 2002
Absolute	-400	2,100	1,700
Percentage	-1.3%	20.6%	5.1%

⁽⁷⁶⁾ Employee jobs only, not self-employed jobs

Source:

1997, Annual Employment Survey; 2002, Annual Business Inquiry (ABI)

22 Mar 2004 : Column 659W

Table B: Employees⁽⁷⁷⁾ in manufacturing in the Stroud Parliamentary Constituency; 1996–2002

	Employees in Manufacturing	% of all employees
1996	11,400	33.1
1997	9,200	27.2
1998	10,000	28.2
1999	9,600	26.0
2000	8,800	25.1
2001	6,800	20.1
2002	6,700	18.8

⁽⁷⁷⁾ Employee jobs only, not self-employed jobs

Source:

1996–1997, Annual Employment Survey; 1998–2002, Annual Business Inquiry (ABI)

Mr. Drew: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the level of unemployment was in Stroud in each year since 1997; and what percentage of the workforce this represented. [162740]

Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.

Letter from Colin Mowl to Mr. David Drew, dated 22 March 2004:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question about unemployment in Stroud. I am replying in his absence. (162740)

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 reliable estimates of unemployment in the Stroud Parliamentary Constituency.

ONS also compiles statistics of those claiming Jobseeker's Allowance (ISA) for local areas including parliamentary constituencies.

The attached table gives the annual average number of JSA claimants and the proportion of the resident working age population for the Stroud constituency for each year since 1997.

JSA claimants in the Stroud Constituencyannual averages

	Total	Rate(78)
1997	1,569	2.6
1998	1,239	2.1
1999	1,204	2.0
2000	1,040	1.7
2001	997	1.7
2002	919	1.5
2003	924	1.5

⁽⁷⁸⁾ Proportion of resident working age population of Stroud Constituency calculated using the 2001 resident working age population.

22 Mar 2004 : Column 660W

Simon Hughes: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many (a) males and (b) females aged (i) 21 to 30, (ii) 31 to 40, (iii) 41 to 50 and (iv) 51 to 60 years in Greater London have been unemployed for (A) less than one month, (B) less than three months, (C) less than six months, (D) six to 12 months and (E) over 12 months; [162360]

(2) how many people aged (a) 21 to 30, (b) 31 to 40, (c) 41 to 50 and (d) 51 to 60 years are unemployed. [162361

Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply

Letter from Colin Mowl to Simon Hughes, dated 22 March 2004:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Questions about unemployment by age group and duration. I am replying in his absence. (162360, 162361)

The attached table shows unemployment estimates from the Labour Force Survey by gender, age and duration in London and in the UK, for the three month period ending November 2003, the most recent period for which information for these categories is available. The data are not seasonally adjusted.

As with any sample survey, estimates from the LFS are subject to sampling variability.

Persons aged 21–60: duration⁽⁷⁹⁾ of unemployment by age3 months ending November 2003 (not seasonally adjusted)   Thousands

UK		Greater London
Age group	All durations	All durations	Less than 3 months	3 months but less than 6 months	6 months but less than 12 months	Over 12 months
Total 21–60	1,042	205	76	43	35	50
21–30	366	77	37	16	12	12
31–40	290	56	16	15	10	15
41–50	215	44	14	*	*	14
51–60	172	28	10	*	*	10
Men
Total 21–60	606	115	36	23	23	33
21–30	227	46	23	*	*	*
31–40	157	31	*	*	*	*
41–50	118	22	*	*	*	*
51–60	105	16	*	*	*	*
Women
Total 21–60	436	90	40	20	13	17
21–30	139	31	15	*	*	*
31–40	132	25	*	*	*	*
41–50	97	22	10	*	*	*
51–60	67	12	*	*	*	*

Source:ONS Labour Force Survey

⁽⁷⁹⁾ Duration of unemployment is defined as the length of time for which a person has been seeking work or the length of time since he or she left their most recent job (whichever is the shorter).* Sample size too small for reliable estimate. The shortest period available is less than three months.

22 Mar 2004 : Column 661W

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