§ Mr. Pikeasked the Paymaster General how many people have left the employment register through the restart programme in (a) Burnley, (b) Pendle and (c) Hyndburn travel-to-work areas.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeOn the basis that the hon. Member is referring to the unemployment benefit count, 579W it is impossible to estimate what proportion of those long-term unemployed people who have ceased to claim benefit in recent months have done so because of the restart programme. People are constantly ceasing to claim benefit because they have returned to work, started work, started training or for a variety of other reasons.
§ Mr. Wainwrightasked the Paymaster General how many long term unemployed people there were in the Huddersfield travel-to-work area before the introduction of the restart scheme; and how many have now been interviewed as part of the restart scheme.
§ Mr. Kenneth Clarke[pursuant to his reply, 1 December 1986, c. 421]: There were 4,107 long term unemployed people in the Huddersfield travel-to-work area in July 1986. Figures for those interviewed under the restart scheme for people who have been unemployed for 12 months or more since its introduction nationally in July 1986 are not available for that precise area. However, in the area covered by the Huddersfield restart team—which is similar to the travel-to-work area—619 such people have since been interviewed.
Huddersfield is also one of the pilot areas where we tested the restart scheme prior to its national introduction. Between 6 January 1986 and 11 July, 3,244 people in the area who had been unemployed for 12 months or more were interviewed and since then, as part of this continuing programme of experiments with this new approach to help long term unemployed people, a further 1,333 people who have been unemployed for six months or more have been interviewed.