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TREASURY

Departmental Annual Reports

Mr. Willis: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what guidance his Department issues on the content of departmental annual reports. [177602]

Mr. Boateng: A copy of the guidance for the 2004 departmental reports is available in the House of Commons Library.

Labour Statistics

Mr. Benton: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the levels of long-term (a) adult and (b) youth employment in Bootle over the last seven years. [177714]

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. Joe Benton, dated 9 June 2004:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question about unemployment. (177714)

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 Bootle Constituency.

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

The table gives total JSA claimants claiming for over 12 months and those aged 18 to 24-years-old claiming for over 12 months for the Bootle constituency. The figures are annual averages for each year since 1997. The data are not seasonally adjusted.

	All ages	18–24 years
1997	1,932	377
1998	1,406	254
1999	1,078	54
2000	912	16
2001	754	10
2002	693	14
2003	622	20

Note:
Computerised claims only.




 
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Ms Walley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the level of unemployment was in each year since 1997 in Stoke-on-Trent, North. [177638]

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

Letter from Len Cook to Ms Joan Walley, dated 9 June 2004:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question about unemployment. (177638)

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 Stoke-on-Trent North Constituency.

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

The table gives the annual average number of JSA claimants for the Stoke-on-Trent North constituency for each year since 1997.

	Number
1997	1,750
1998	1,554
1999	1,669
2000	1,396
2001	1,367
2002	1,330
2003	1,281

Tax Returns (Penalty Notices)

Mr. Prisk: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many penalty notices have been issued by the
 
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Inland Revenue to taxpayers for filing late tax returns which have subsequently been found to have been filed on time in each of the last five years. [177281]

Dawn Primarolo: This information is not available.

Unemployment

Simon Hughes: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the unemployment rates for the 55-plus age group in (a) Greater London and (b) each Greater London borough in each of the last five years. [177058]

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. Simon Hughes, dated 9 June 2004:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question about unemployment. I am replying in his absence. (177058)

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) compiles statistics of unemployment from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) following International Labour Organisation definitions.

The attached table 1, gives unemployment rates for the 5 5-plus age group in Greater London covering the twelve month periods ending in February 1997, and each February from 2000 to 2003. Comparable information is currently not available for other years. The LFS sample size is too small to give reliable information about unemployment in each Greater London borough.

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

ONS also compiles statistics of those claiming Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) for local areas including Greater London Boroughs. Table 2 gives the annual average number of JSA claimants for the age group 55 plus as a proportion of the resident population aged 55 to retirement age (55 to 64 for males, 55 to 59 for females) in Greater London and each Borough in Greater London for each year from 1999 to 2003. The data are not seasonally adjusted.

Table 1: Unemployment rate⁽³⁹⁾ for the 55-plus age group in Greater London—12 months ending February in 1997 and each February from 2000 to 2003

	Percentage
1997	9.3
2000	6.2
2001	5.7
2002	5.0

⁽³⁹⁾ This is the percentage of the economically active population aged 16 and over who are unemployed.
Note:
Economically active population refers to those who are either unemployed or in employment.
Source:
ONS—Labour Force Survey.




Table 2: Jobseeker's allowance claimants aged 55 and over in the London boroughs

	Percentage of population(41)
Annual averages	1999	2000	2001	2002 1	2003 1
Barking and Dagenham	2.5	2.2	1.9	2.1	2.4
Barnet	2.2	1.8	1.6	1.9	2.0
Bexley	1.9	1.4	1.3	1.4	1.7
Brent	3.8	2.9	2.4	2.4	2.6
Bromley	1.7	1.4	1.3	1.5	1.6
Camden	4.6	3.7	3.2	3.6	3.6
City of London	2.5	1.8	1.7	1.5	1.7
Croydon	2.8	2.4	2.1	2.2	2.1
Ealing	2.7	2.1	1.8	2.0	2.1
Enfield	3.2	2.7	2.3	2.3	2.4
Greenwich	3.5	3.4	2.9	3.2	3.1
Hackney	5.8	4.5	3.5	3.6	4.1
Hammersmith and Fulham	4.3	3.8	3.0	3.2	3.4
Haringey	5.2	4.6	3.6	3.3	3.4
Harrow	2.5	1.9	1.5	1.6	1.7
Havering	1.7	1.6	1.2	1.4	1.5
Hillingdon	1.7	1.3	1.2	1.4	1.8
Hounslow	1.8	1.3	1.0	1.5	1.5
Islington	5.7	4.3	3.7	3.7	4.1
Kensington and Chelsea	2.7	2.3	1.7	1.8	2.1
Kingston-upon-Thames	2.0	1.6	1.1	1.3	1.5
Lambeth	5.5	5.0	4.5	4.5	4.5
Lewisham	4.4	3.9	3.4	3.3	3.5
Merton	2.7	2.0	1.7	2.1	2.5
Newham	4.2	3.5	2.9	2.6	2.6
Redbridge	2.3	2.1	1.6	1.7	1.7
Richmond-upon-Thames	2.0	1.7	1.4	1.7	1.9
Southwark	4.6	4.3	3.7	3.9	4.3
Sutton	1.7	1.4	1.1	1.6	1.7
Tower Hamlets	5.5	4.9	3.9	3.6	3.7
Waltham Forest	3.4	3.0	2.6	2.8	3.1
Wandsworth	3.8	3.4	2.9	2.9	3.0
Westminster, City of	3.4	2.9	2.5	2.5	2.6

⁽⁴⁰⁾ Based on the 2001 resident population.
⁽⁴¹⁾ Claimant count figures as the percentage of the resident population aged 55 to retirement age
Source:
Jobcentre Plus Administrative system Claimant count proportions using mid—2002.




 
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Working Tax Credit

Mrs. Brooke: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what amount of funding his Department has budgeted to cover the childcare element of working tax credit in 2003–04 and 2004–05; and if he will make a statement; [177516]

(2) how many families or women with a child under the age of (a) one year and (b) six months are in receipt of the childcare element of the working tax credit; and if he will make a statement; [177519]

(3) what estimate has been made of the take-up rate of the childcare element of working tax credit as a percentage of those families and single parents who are eligible to receive it since the benefit was introduced; and if he will make a statement. [177520]

Dawn Primarolo: For the cost of the childcare element of the working tax credit, I refer the hon. Member to my reply to her on 27 April 2004, Official Report, column 866W.

About 25,000 families with a child under one were benefiting from the childcare element at 5 April 2004, of which 5,000 had a child aged under six months. These are estimates based on a sample of cases and should be treated with caution. Also, they exclude such families who had not claimed tax credits, or had not notified the Inland Revenue of the young child or of the childcare costs, by 5 April 2004—they have three months to claim and benefit in full. They also exclude families whose initial claim, or change of circumstance, was being processed at that date.

Estimates of the take-up rate requested would have to be based on household survey data. These surveys contain too few sample cases to produce reliable estimates.
 
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