§ Ms RuddockTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many permanent staff employed by the
932Whis Department per unemployed person in each of the last 10 years.
§ Mr. PaiceThe information requested is shown in the table:
Year Amount £ Real Terms (1994–95 Prices) £ 1984–85 110 180 1985–86 140 220 1986–87 180 280 1987–88 220 320 1988–89 480 650 1989–90 980 1,240 1990–91 950 1,120 1991–92 560 620 1992–93 430 460 Notes:
1. Expenditure up to and including 1990–91 is for Great Britain. Expenditure in 1991–92 is England/Wales and expenditure from 1992–93 is England only.
2. The amounts are a crude calculation which takes the total amount spent on training, education and administrative costs and divides that by the average number of unemployed people aged 18 and over.
3. For consistency, expenditure on youth programmes has teen excluded from the calculations.
4. Employment measures and labour market services are excluded from the calculations.
§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many weeks training were(a) offered and (b) undertaken in respect of (1) employment training, and (2) youth training by training and enterprise councils in Lincolnshire and Humberside in the last year for which figures were available; what element of this was provided by (i) a further education college, (ii) any other public sector college, (iii) an outside training provider and (iv) an employer, or prospective employer.
§ Mr. PaiceThe information requested on training weeks offered and undertaken is shown in the table and relates to 1993–94. Information on training providers is not available.
Employment Service covering the parliamentary constituency of Lewisham, Deptford have been instructed to take unpaid leave or work shorter hours; for what reasons; and if he is able to estimate the impact on the time taken to process applications and appeals.
§ Ms WiddecombeResponsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service Agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from M. E. G. Fogden to Ms Joan Ruddock, dated 2 December 1994:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the number of permanent staff employed by the Employment Service (ES) covering the parliamentary constituency of Lewisham, 933W Deptford instructed to take unpaid leave or to work shorter hours, for what reasons and the time taken to process applications and appeals.The exercise you refer to is an entirely voluntary one. A note has been circulated to all staff within the London and South East Region which sets out our current staffing position in an open and honest manner and offers staff the opportunity to take special unpaid leave or to shorten their hours should they wish to do so. No pressure has been placed on any staff member to take up either of these options. Nor will it be.Staff wishing to take leave or shorten working hours have been asked to complete a simple stencil, setting out the period of leave or hours preferred. These stencils are returned by the individual directly to a central point within the Region. Due to the simple design of the stencil, it is anticipated that applications can be cleared speedily, and certainly each form should not take no more than a few minutes to action.Unemployment has fallen by almost 14% within London and the South East over the last twelve months, and by almost 30% in a number of Travel To Work Areas within the Region. Three quarters of ES staff are directly employed in the payment of unemployment benefit. Obviously, lower levels of unemployment mean that fewer staff are required. The offer of unpaid leave and shortened hours is one way in which we can ensure that we are not using more staff time than is required to deliver our service. We very much hope that voluntary measures of this kind will suffice since the alternatives, of reducing overall numbers, would obviously be less attractive to staff concerned. Employing more staff than are required to deliver our services would not be good value for money.Deptford Employment Service Jobcentre is the only ES office which falls within the boundaries of the constituency of Lewisham Deptford. The Deptford office currently employs 39 permanent staff. As of 29 November, no-one from the Deptford office had applied for either special leave or shortened hours.I hope this is helpful.
§ Ms RuddockTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many casual staff are currently employed by the Employment Service covering the parliamentary constituency of Lewisham, Deptford; and what intention there is to cut back on their numbers before the end of the financial year otherwise than to replace them with permanent staff.
§ Miss WiddecombeResponsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service Agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from M. E. G. Fogden to Ms Joan Ruddock, dated 2 December 1994:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about how many casual staff are currently employed by the Employment Service (ES) covering the parliamentary constituency of Lewisham, Deptford and what intention there is to cut back on their numbers before the end of the financial year otherwise than to replace them with permanent staff.Deptford Employment Service Jobcentre is the only ES office which falls within the boundaries of the constituency of Lewisham, Deptford. The Deptford office currently employs 39 permanent staff. There are no casual staff employed at the office.I hope this is helpful.