HC Deb 19 January 1989 vol 145 cc281-2W
Ms. Walley

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will give the lastest available figures of how many of the employment training programme's filled places are(a) extended placements from the community programme, (b) new public authority placements, (c) new placements in the voluntary sector and (d) new placements in the private sector: (i) nationally and (ii) in north Staffordshire.

Mr. Nicholls

The information is not available.

Ms. Walley

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is the number of filled places on the employment training programme(a) nationally and (b) in north Staffordshire.

Mr. Nicholls

At 6 January 1989 there were 111,000 trainees on employment training in Great Britain. Figures are not separately available for north Staffordshire, but there were approximately 2,100 filled places in Staffordshire as a whole on the same date.

Ms. Short

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many applications for the ET child care allowance have been received by his Department; how many have been granted and refused; how much has been paid out in child care allowances; and how many ET trainees are currently receiving child care allowances.

Mr. Nicholls

The information requested is not available. Information on the number of employment trainees for whom child care payments are made will be regularly collected from March, with the first results available at the end of April 1989.

Ms. Short

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what new arrangements he has made for claiming back the 100 per cent. advance funding given to ET training managers; how many training managers have applied for deferment because paying back the advances would cause them severe financial hardship; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Nicholls

Repayments of advances for the first three months of ET operations commenced from 1 January 1989. However, where a training manager can demonstrate that this would cause substantial cash flow difficulties, they may now defer the start of the repayments for two months, although the advances still have to be repaid over the period of their contract. Information on the number of training managers taking up this option is not collected separately and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Mr. Leighton

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many people transferred from the community programme to employment training.

Mr. Nicholls

By the end of November 1988, the latest date for which information is available, a total of about 11,000 people had transferred from the community programme to employment training.