To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what percentage of 16 to 19 year olds in Leeds West constituency were (a) in education, training or employment and (b) registered as unemployed in each year since 1992. (306597)

I have been asked to reply.

Estimates of the number of 16 to 19-year-olds participating in education, employment or training are riot available at parliamentary constituency level. The Department for Children, Schools and Families publishes annual estimates of the proportion of 16 to 17-year-olds participating in education and training in each local authority. These estimates are available via this link under “additional information”:

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000849/index.shtml

An alternative source of data is the Connexions Client Caseload Information System (CCIS). This records the main activity of 16 to 18-year-olds known to Connexions.

Claimant count data are available via the Office for National Statistics Nomis website:

https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/.

The following table shows the average number of young people aged 16-19 claiming jobseeker’s allowance and thereby registered unemployed in the Leeds, West constituency in each year from 1996, the first year available, to 2008. Because population estimates for 16 to 19-year-olds are not routinely available by parliamentary constituency, it is not possible to express these figures as percentages.

It should be noted that 16 and 17-year-olds do not have routine access to job seeker’s allowance except in cases of severe hardship.