To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many 16 to 24 year olds in (a) Jarrow Constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) the UK have been employed on zero-hours contracts in each of the past five years.

I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Cabinet Office.

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

Letter from Glen Watson, dated September 2013

As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions asking how many 16 to 24 year olds in (a) Jarrow Constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) the UK have been employed on zero hours contracts in each of the past five years. (168201)

Currently, the only official source of estimates of people employed on zero-hours contracts is the Labour Force Survey (LFS). Unfortunately, the LFS does not currently allow for robust analysis by age group of zero-hours contracts and, due to sample size, estimates are not available for areas smaller than the UK.

On 22 August 2013 the Office for National Statistics announced plans for an additional regular estimate of the number of 'zero-hours' employment contracts in the UK workforce:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/mro/news-release/ons-announces-additional-estimate-of-zero-hours-contracts/zhc0813.html