§ 12. Mr. Graham Allen (Nottingham, North)If he will further devolve Employment Service employees to locally based offices; and if he will make a statement. [454]
§ The Minister for Work (Mr. Nicholas Brown)We are keen to encourage innovation and a locally targeted approach to the delivery of Employment Service business, for example through employment zones and action teams for jobs. The area covered by the action team in Nottingham is being greatly expanded and tenders are being invited at present for an area comprising 11 wards. Four additional wards will become part of the action team area from July 1, including Bulwell, East and West in my hon. Friend's constituency.
We are also harnessing new technology to open up access to information about jobs and training. Details of almost half a million jobs are available on the Employment Service website. The Worktrain website combines those details with training opportunities.
§ Mr. AllenI welcome my right hon. Friend to his new position. In many ways, he will be a victim of the Government's success in getting so many of the unemployed back to work, but there is a law of diminishing returns, in that it is more difficult to get those who are still unemployed back to work. Will my right hon. Friend therefore be ever more creative and inventive in looking at the structure of the Employment Service so that pilot schemes such as the ones in my constituency on the Broxtowe estate and in the Bestwood Park area, where Employment Service personnel are based on estates, are taken further? At present, those schemes are often put together voluntarily, using small pockets of money. Will my right hon. Friend look at the structure of the Employment Service so that there can be a more formal devolution to attack such remaining high pockets of unemployment?
§ Mr. BrownI thank my hon. Friend for his kind words, and welcome and largely agree with his general approach. It is true that in our country there are now more people in work than ever before. That does not mean that we, as a society, should condemn anyone of working age to the evils and sustained low income of unemployment. It is right that the service should work proactively with those who are currently excluded from the labour market to get them into work—and into fulfilling work—so that their incomes and their lives are enhanced.