HC Deb 28 October 1999 vol 336 c1076
1. Dr. Norman A. Godman (Greenock and Inverclyde)

How the new deal has been implemented in the Clyde coastal area; and which target groups have been identified in relation to the Renfrewshire labour market.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education and Employment (Mr. Malcolm Wicks)

A wide range of new deals are available in the Clyde coast and Renfrewshire area to tackle unemployment. These include the new deals for young people, for long-term unemployed people and for lone parents. In Renfrewshire, new figures to the end of August show that more than 1,000 people have found jobs through the new deal.

Dr. Godman

First, I offer my compliments to my hon. Friend on his new appointment—long may he occupy the post.

Although I think that there is too much emphasis on targeting, I wish to make a plea about the new deal on behalf of my disabled constituents, and of disabled people in the west of Scotland. I know that a first-class pilot project, the new deal for disabled people, is being conducted in Lanarkshire under the able management of Mr. Robert Jack and his team. However, we need a comprehensive system which will encourage disabled people to take up voluntary, part-time and therapeutic work, as well as education and training courses. If, as sometimes happens, things do not work out, disabled people should not have to face the threat of having to claim again for incapacity benefit and other benefits. The system has to be compassionate and sympathetic, and meet disabled people's needs.

Mr. Wicks

I thank my hon. Friend for his good wishes. I shall do my best in the new deal that has been offered to me.

My hon. Friend raises a serious issue about the treatment of people with disabilities. In his area, 561 people with disabilities have already started on existing new deal schemes, but he is right to say that we need to do much more. Pilots for the national new deal programme for disabled people are being held. We want to establish good practice so that we can roll out a national programme. In conjunction with our colleagues in the Department of Social Security, we are making sure that there is a sensitive interface with the social security system, so that people who have to return to the system if a job opportunity does not work out are not penalised.