asked the Secretary of State for Employment what has been the average percentage unemployment rate in (a) Wolverhampton and (b) the West Midlands for each of the last 10 years and for the current year.

The following table gives for the Wolverhampton travel-to-work area and the West Midlands region the annual average percentage rate.; of unemployment from 1972 to 1981 and the averages for the first four months of 1982.

	Wolverhampton travel-to-work area per cent.	West Midlands region per cent.
1972	4·6	3·6
1973	2·5	2·2
1974	*2·4	*2·1
1975	†5·0	4·1
1976	‡6·9	5·8
1977	6·3	5·8

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what was the total number of persons unemployed, the percentage rate of unemployment and the total number of vacancies for (a) Wolverhampton and (b) the West Midlands at the latest available date.

The following is the provisional information at April 1982 for the Wolverhampton travelto-work area and the West Midlands region.

Wolverhampton travel-to-work area		West Midlands region
Number registered as unemployed	23,510	346,392
Percentage rate of unemployment	16·1	15·2
Number of vacancies remaining unfilled
At employment offices	282	6,673
At careers offices	36	598

The vacancy statistics relate only to vacancies notified to employment offices and careers offices; vacancies notified to employment offices are estimated to be about one-third of all vacancies in the country as a whole. Because of possible duplication the figures for employment offices and careers offices should not be added together.

asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will set out for each quarter in 1981 and the first quarter of 1982 (a) the lowest and (b) the average (i) male (ii) female and (iii) overall unemployment rates in travel-to-work areas (i) with intermediate area status and (ii) with development area status in England.

asked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he will publish statistics for the numbers unemployed in each Greater London Borough showing these as a percentage of the economically active population.

I shall reply to my hon. Friend and to the hon. Gentleman as soon as possible.