Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: HM Treasury

Oral Answers to Questions

Russell Brown Excerpts
Tuesday 14th May 2013

(11 years ago)

Commons Chamber
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Sajid Javid Portrait Sajid Javid
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I have seen the report to which my hon. Friend refers. I have also seen similar reports—for example, from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research—which also show encouraging signs. Together, all those reports show that this Government’s policies are working.

Russell Brown Portrait Mr Russell Brown (Dumfries and Galloway) (Lab)
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In reply to a question I tabled, which eventually ended up with the Cabinet Office, I was informed that between June 2010 and September 2012, 741,000 private sector jobs were created. Can the Minister explain the discrepancy between that figure and the fanciful figures of 1 million, and now 1.25 million, private sector jobs that he and his colleagues use?

Sajid Javid Portrait Sajid Javid
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The numbers I tend to look at are those provided by the Office for National Statistics. Those numbers show not that 1.25 million jobs were created in the private sector since the end of the first quarter of 2010, but that 1.31 million jobs were created. If we allowed for transfers from the further education sector, which we do not, the figure would be 1.5 million jobs.