To ask the Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills how many and what proportion of young people in each (a) town, (b) ward and (c) lower layer super output area of the principal seaside towns in England are not in education, employment or training. (257335)

[holding answer 23 February 2009]: Details of young people not in employment, education or training are not available for small geographical regions such as principal seaside towns, wards and lower layer super output areas. The smallest geographical area for which these numbers are available is by local education authority.

Tables 1 and 2 show estimates of the numbers and percentages of people aged¹ 16 to 24 not in education, employment or training (NEET) for local education authorities (LEAs) in England. These are the most recent estimates are from the Annual Population Survey (APS); data for 2008 are not yet available. The tables have been placed in the House Libraries.

Numbers have been rounded to the nearest thousand as sample sizes for each local education authority are small and will be affected by sampling variability. This will also affect the comparability of data for each year, as most of the differences in figures for different years are statistically insignificant.

¹ Age used is the respondent's academic age, which is defined as their age at the preceding 31 August.