To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what proportion of the working age population in (a) Newcastle upon Tyne Central constituency, (b) Newcastle upon Tyne, (c) Tyne and Wear and (d) the North East region (i) had no qualifications, (ii) were qualified to level 2 and (iii) were qualified to level 4 in (A) 2001 and (B) each year since 2004. (318809)

The table shows the proportion of the working age population in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear Local Education Authority, and the North East region qualified to at least level 4, 3, 2, below Level 2 and with no qualifications.

These estimates are taken from the Annual Population Survey (APS). The APS sample is not large enough to provide estimates for smaller geographies such as constituencies, but it is suitable for Local Education Areas estimates. However, please note that these estimates are subject to sampling variability and should therefore be treated with caution and viewed in conjunction with their Confidence Intervals (CIs), which indicate how accurate an estimate is. For example, a CI of +/- 2.7 percentage points (pp) means that the true value is between 2.7pp above the estimate and 2.7pp below the estimate.

Estimates of qualification levels in regions and local areas from 2000 to 2008 are published on the Further Education Data Service website at:

http://www.thedataservice.org/uk/NR/rdonlyres/AC4DC94B-54F2-4F31-A7FF-E4E08C2210C4/0/TABLES FORWEBAPSsupplementarytablesbroken downbylocallevelrevised25Aug.xls

The 2009 estimates are due to be published in July this year.