To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, pursuant to his oral answer to the hon. Member for Newport, East (Mr. Flynn) of 4 December, Official Report, columns 7–8, if he will make a statement on the criteria he used to calculate levels of employment and unemployment. [5012]

The figures used are from the claimant unemployment count as published monthly by the Central Statistical Office. For Wales as a whole, seasonally adjusted figures are available and used for month-to-month comparisons because they avoid the distortion of seasonal variation. Below this geographical level only unadjusted figures are published by the CSO, so where individual counties and parliamentary constituencies are compared with Wales, unadjusted figures are used.