HC Deb 25 May 1993 vol 225 cc738-9
4. Mr. Clappison

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what was the target for job placements by the Employment Service during the most recent three months available; and what was the actual performance.

Mrs. Gillian Shephard

The Employment Service placed 1.42 million unemployed people into work in 1992–93.

Mr. Clappison

Will my right hon. Friend join me in welcoming the fact that the Employment Service has been especially successful in placing the long-term unemployed in work, and the fact that the restart interview scheme has played an important part in that assistance, and also in eliminating benefit fraud?

Mrs. Shephard

The record of the Employment Service at this difficult time has certainly been excellent. Not only has it met its target, but in some cases has exceeded it. The target for the coming year is for the service to place some 1.47 million unemployed people back in work, and I am confident that it will do so. Last year, the Employment Service also placed some one third of a million long-term unemployed people back into work, and that, too, was an excellent achievement.

It is a great shame that Opposition Members sneer at the achievements of the Employment Service and at the excellent staff in our jobcentres. If they, like me, spent more time in our jobcentres seeing what our excellent staff actually do, they might sneer a little less and cheer a little more.

Mr. McAllion

Can the Secretary of State tell the House whether any of those job placements included the recruitment of long-term unemployed people to cross picket lines at Timex in Dundee? Rather than setting the unemployed and the employed at one another's throats, surely the Government's time would be better spent in legislating to provide the same legal protection for workers taking industrial action in this country as is available for workers everywhere else in Europe?

Mrs. Shephard

The hon. Gentleman must know that employees who choose to go on strike have always risked dismissal. I hope that he will join my hon. Friends and myself in condemning the unacceptable violence demon-strated on the picket lines in Dundee.

Mr. David Shaw

Can my right hon. Friend confirm that the success that the Employment Service is delivering is such that virtually every, or even every, unemployed person has the opportunity to attend a restart interview? Is not the Employment Service getting record numbers back into work?

Mrs. Shephard

Certainly the Employment Service has never done a better job in reaching its targets. We also have more opportunities in training, in reskilling and in employment measures—1.6 million in all—than we have ever had to help unemployed people back into jobs.