HC Deb 10 January 1995 vol 252 cc37-8W
Sir Ralph Howell

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment, pursuant to his answer of 14 December,Official Report, column 696, if he will make a statement on the principal findings (a) for North Norfolk Action and (b) for each of the Workstart programmes.

Miss Widdecombe

Evaluations of North Norfolk Action and Workstart both showed encouraging results, and action is being taken to build on these. The most successful element of North Norfolk Action has already been adopted in the 1–2–1 pilot for 18 to 24-year-olds, which will become a national programme in April 1995. The evaluation of Workstart indicated that the subsidy has had a significant effect on employers' attitudes to long-term unemployed people. The 5,000 Workstart places announced in the Budget will provide an opportunity to explore the potential for varying the level of subsidy to obtain the most cost-effective results.

Sir Ralph Howell

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is the total amount the Government have(a) saved from the Workstart scheme and (b) spent on North Norfolk Action, since their implementation; and what has been the expenditure or saving per person per week on each scheme.

Miss Widdecombe

Savings in public expenditure from any employment programme arise from long-term improvements in the functioning of the labour market, and cannot be calculated in the terms requested.

Evaluation of Workstart suggested that it had had a positive effect on employers' willingness to recruit long-term unemployed people, and this approach will be explored further using the 5,000 pilot places announced in the Budget. North Norfolk Action provided work experience or a series of interviews with an Employment Service adviser for people who had been out of the labour market for some time. The national work experience programme, community action, was extended in the Budget, and will provide 40,000 places a year.

Under the first Workstart pilot, employers who recruited long-term unemployed people were paid £60 a week for the first six months, and £30 a week for the next six. Expenditure on the pilot until the end of November 1994 totalled £1,494,516.

Providers on North Norfolk Action were paid £52 per week per place, and the total cost of the pilot was £686,624.