Written question asked by John Bercow (Conservative) on Wednesday, 10 March 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 15 March 2004. It was answered by Ruth Kelly (Labour) on Monday, 15 March 2004 on behalf of the Office for National Statistics.

Treasury;Office for National Statistics

Question: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the level of unemployment was in Buckingham in each year since 1997. - Inc table and text of letter from Len Cook of the Office for National Statistics.

Answer: Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the level of unemployment was in Buckingham in each year since 1997. [161327] 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. John Bercow, dated 15 March 2004: As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about unemployment in Buckingham. 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 Buckingham Parliamentary Constituency. ONS does also compile statistics of those claiming Jobseeker's Allowance (ISA) for local areas including parliamentary constituencies. The table below gives the annual average number of ISA claimants for the Buckingham Parliamentary Constituency for each year since 1997. Average annual number of JSA claimants in the Buckingham parliamentary constituency _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Average number of claimants 1997 677 1998 508 1999 473 2000 382 2001 377 2002 416 2003 429 _________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Secondary information