§ Mr. DafisTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on the termination of training courses previously run with the support of the European Social Fund. [16405]
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Performance figures relate to the period April to September 1997 Operation year: 1997–98 APA indicators Northern Yorks and the Humber East Midlands and Eastern London and South East South West Unemployed placings End year target 76,475 147,000 140,700 415,800 138,775 Performance to September 33,459 65,835 67,488 182,289 69,431 JSA claimant placings End year target 52,000 95,865 88,700 261,000 86,100 Performance to September 23,085 42,875 43,071 111,203 42,273 Long term claimant placings (as percentage of JSA claimant placings) End year target (per cent.) 45.4 43.4 44.0 57.1 42.4 Performance to September (per cent.) 38.4 39.3 35.4 46.7 37.7 2 year plus claimant placings End year target 4,800 6,750 6,450 27,300 4,500 Performance to September 1,911 4,437 3,527 16,110 4,399 Placings of people with disabilities (as percentage of unemployed placings) End year target (per cent.) 4.6 5.0 5.2 4.9 5.0 Performance to September (per cent.) 5.6 6.2 6.0 6.3 7.5
§ Mr. Andrew SmithThe annual competition for funding through the European Social Fund (ESF) is intense and inevitably some projects are unsuccessful. In the competition for 1998 a proportion of successful applicants will be given approval for two years, subject to satisfactory performance. This will reduce for some projects the difficulties caused by the annual nature of the ESF.