asked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the rate of unemployment in the Southend area at the most recent convenient date; and how this compares with the figures for the same period in the years 1973 to 1976, respectively.

At March 1977 the provisional rate of unemployment in the Southend travel-to-work area was 7·5 per cent. The corresponding rates for earlier years were 3 per cent. in 1973 and 1974, 4·2 per cent. in 1975 and 6·5 per cent. in 1976.