Danny Alexander (Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch & Strathspey, Liberal Democrat)

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what the average length of time was for which claimants resident in Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey constituency were in receipt of jobseeker's allowance in (a) each of the last 12 months and (b) each of the last five years.

Angela Smith (Minister of State (Third Sector), Cabinet Office; Basildon, Labour)

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.

Letter from Jil Matheson, dated November 2009:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking what the average length of time was for which claimants resident in Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey constituency were in receipt of jobseeker's allowance in (a) each of the last 12 months and (b) each of the last five years. (297825)

The number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) is taken from the Jobcentre Plus administrative system. The length of a claim has been defined as the time between the start of an individual's claim and the count date in each reference month. Table 1 shows the median length of live claims during the last 12 months up to the latest available period in September 2009, and for September of each of the last five years.

National and local area estimates for many labour market statistics, including employment, unemployment and claimant count are available on the NOMIS website at:

http://www.nomisweb.co.uk