HC Deb 24 January 1996 vol 270 cc284-5W
Mr. Blunkett

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many people have applied for assistance through the access to work scheme over each of the last 12 months; and how many of these applicants have received assistance. [11465]

Mr. Forth

Responsibility 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 Mike Fogden to Mr. David Blunkett, dated 24 January 1996: The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the monthly number of Access to Work applicants. The attached table shows the number of people accepted for Access to Work support in each month since December 1994. We do not collect information centrally about the numbers of people who apply for support but are not eligible. I hope this is helpful.

Access to work beneficiaries: December 1994 to November 1995
Month Beneficiaries
1994
December 622
1995
January 785
February 830
March 868
April/May1 1,058
June 929
July 934
August 854
September 896
October 794
November 866
1New procedures for recording information were introduced during April. The first count covered the period from 1 April to 31 May 1995.

Mr. Blunkett

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment when she expects the review of access to work to be completed; and when the information from that review will be made available. [11466]

Mr. Forth

Responsibility 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 Mike Fogden to Mr. David Blunkett, dated 24 January 1996: The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the Access to Work review. The review of Access to Work is an internal exercise carried out by the Employment Service. A report of the review will soon be sent to the Minister of State and he has already announced that he will discuss the operation of the programme in 1996/97 with the principal organisations concerned before any recommendations are implemented. The Employment Service commissioned research from Social Community Planning Research to feed into the review. That research is complete and we intend to publish it during February. I hope this is helpful.