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The Committee takes note of the report and of the various new legislative provisions supplied by the Government.

In reply to the Committee's previous comments, the Government states that it is currently in the process of examining the issues raised very carefully, but at this stage it is not yet in a position to respond in detail to the Committee's request for information. The Government reassures however that it will provide a full and detailed response on all of the issues following a review of its position in the light of the Committee's comments. The Committee takes good note of this statement. It hopes that the Government will not fail to supply a detailed report for its next session containing full information on the important questions raised in its direct requests of 1996 and 1997, as well as any additional information it would like to provide with respect to the comments on the application of the Convention received from the Trades Union Council on 28 November 1996. The Committee recalls in this respect that, in order to be able to examine in detail the Jobseekers Act, which entered into force in October 1996, together with its implementing regulations, which are of a particularly voluminous and complex nature, it should dispose of the full information on the impact of the new legislation on the application of each Article of Part IV (Unemployment benefit) and other relevant Parts of the Convention, including statistics, provided in the manner set out in the report form. It trusts that such information would be supplied in the Government's next report and that it would deal in particular with questions of the definition of suitable employment and disqualification from unemployment benefit, in the light of the Committee's previous comments and the observations made by the TUC.

[The Government is asked to report in detail in 1998.]