asked the Secretary of State for Scotland what is his best estimate of the number of (a) 16 and (b) 17-year-olds in Scotland in each year from 1983 to 1988.

The latest—1979 based—official population projections produced by the Registrar General show the following:

	Age at 30 June
	16 year old	17 year old
	(thousands)
1983	89·6	87·9
1984	86·4	89·0
1985	85·6	85·7
1986	82·3	84·9
1987	81·6	81·6
1988	77·5	81·0

New—1981 based—projections are now being prepared for publication next year. A very provisional estimate, taking into account information from the 1981 census, suggests that the new projection will show figures which are of the order of 1 per cent. higher in each case.