asked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the percentage of unemployed on Merseyside, of male workers, female workers, youth and unemployed disabled; in which areas of Merseyside the figures are highest; and what action is being taken to deal with the rise of unemployment in the area.

The rates of unemployment on 14th July in the Mersey-side special development area, and those constituent parts for which separate rates can be meaningfully calculated and which together make up the area, are set out in the table below:

	Males	Females	Total
Widnes (travel-to-work area)	7·8	5·7	7·1
St. Helens (employment office)	9·2	5·5	8·0
Liverpool (travel-to-work area)	12·4	5·1	9·6
Merseyside SDA	11·8	5·2	9·3

Unemployment rates comparable to those given in the table cannot be calculated for young people or disabled people. However, the number of unemployed registered disabled people in the Merseyside special development area on 14th July expressed as a percentage of all registered disabled people in the area was 16·2 per cent.In addition to the existing measures designed to help Merseyside—which were set out in an answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Ormskirk (Mr. Kilroy-Silk)—[Vol. 895, c. 461.]—the area should benefit from the special measures which are intended to mitigate the worst effects of unemployment, which were announced in my right hon. Friend's statement on 24th July—[Vol. 896, c. 782–3].