§ Mr. RowlandsTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what estimate he has made of the number of people taken on under the New Deal arrangements by each of the health trusts in England; [60532]
(2) what estimate he has made of the number of people taken on under the New Deal arrangements by each of the health authorities in England. [60533]
§ Mr. MilburnWe are committed to ensuring that this important strand of government social policy is a success and to this end we are looking to the National Health Service to provide at least 1,000 job opportunities overall to New Deal candidates. We have not set a minimum target for each organisation and we are aware that presently 260 NHS organisations have signed employer agreements. Most recent figures collected by the Department show that at the end of October there were 897 health authority and trusts vacancies registered with the Employment Services.