To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what percentage of 16 to 19 year olds resident in Milton Keynes were (a) in education, training or employment and (b) registered as unemployed in each year since 1997. (308090)

I have been asked to reply.

Estimates of the number of 16 to 19-year-olds participating in education, employment or training are not 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 jobseekers allowance and thereby registered unemployed in the North East Milton Keynes constituency in each year from 1997 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 jobseeker’s allowance except in cases of severe hardship.