HC Deb 05 February 1996 vol 271 cc71-2W
Mr. Chris Smith

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) if she will update the estimates given in Cm. 2805 on(a) the effect on public revenues of work trials and (b) the estimated numbers who will benefit from the scheme in (i) 1995–96, (ii) 1996–97, (iii) 1997–98 and (iv) 1998–99. [13414]

(2) if she will update the estimates given in Cm. 2805 on (a) the effect on public revenues of the job interview guarantee scheme and (b) the estimated numbers who will benefit from the scheme in (i) 1995–96, (ii) 1996–97, (iii) 1997–98 and (iv) 1998–99. [13412]

Mr. Forth

Responsibility for the subject of the questions 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 Mike Fogden to Mr. Chris Smith, dated 5 February 1996:

The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your questions about updating the estimates given in Cm. 2805 (the Departmental Report) for the effect on public revenues and the estimated number of people who will benefit from Work Trials and Job Interview Guarantee (JIG) Scheme in each of the following years 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98 and 1998–99.

The tables below set out both expenditure and the number of opportunities for each of the programmes in a similar format to the 1995 Departmental Report to allow comparisons to be made.

Work Trials
11995–96 21996–97 21997–98 21998–99
Expenditure £ million1 1.8 2.4 2.4 2.4
Opportunities 30,000 40,000 40,000 40,000
1 Estimated outturn.
2 Plan.
3 This expenditure only represents the programme expenditure for Work Trials which is used for paying participants travel and other expenses. Work Trials is also supported by administrative running costs for ES people.
Job Interview Guarantee Scheme
11995–96 21996–97 11997–98 21998–99
Expenditure (£ million)3 0.9 1.3 1.3 1.3
Opportunities 300,000 300,000 300,000 300,000
1 Estimated outturn.
2 Plan.
3 Programme expenditure is used to fund Job Preparation Courses. Running Cost expenditure for the other elements of JIG are not included in this table.