HC Deb 10 May 2002 vol 385 cc365-7W
Mr. Clappison

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people are involved in(a) stage 1 and (b) stage 2 of the Employment Zone scheme in each of the 15 Employment Zone areas. [47930]

Mr. Nicholas Brown

The information is in the table.

Number of current participants (at 31 January 2002)
Employment Zone Step 1 Step 2
Birmingham 2,225 2,423
Brent 424 380
Brighton 238 349
Doncaster 587 531
Glasgow 776 768
Haringey 935 1,154
Liverpool 1,422 2,628
Middlesbrough 219 319
Newham 528 825
North West Wales 460 335
Nottingham 194 226
Plymouth 166 232
Southwark 682 933
Tower Hamlets 347 313
Heads of the Valleys 170 356
TOTAL 9,373 11,772

Source:

Employment Zone Management Information.

Employment Zones vary in size and coverage.

Mr. Clappison

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much has been(a) budgeted and (b) spent on the Employment Zone scheme in each year since its introduction; and how much of the allocation in each year went into personal job accounts.[47929]

Mr. Nicholas Brown

The Department does not receive information from contractors on the specific amounts spent on personal job accounts. This is because funding for the personal job account is drawn from the overall payments made to the contractors. Expenditure on personal job accounts by contractors varies according to the needs of each participant.

In the financial year April 2000—March 2001, the Employment Zone budget was £56,374,000 and the spend was £71,950,885.

For the financial year April 2001—March 2002 the budget was £87,026,000. Forecast expenditure will be published in the Departmental Report in May.

Reasons for the differences between the spend on Employment Zones and budget include better than anticipated performance by Zone contractors and more participants entering the programme earlier than forecast.

The budget for 2001–02 includes funding for those who joined Employment Zones during the year and have not yet completed Steps 1 and 2.

Mr. Clappison

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people have been helped into sustained employment via the Employment Zone scheme(a) in each year since its introduction and (b) broken down according to each employment zone. [47928]

Mr. Nicholas Brown

Between April 2000, when they were launched, and January 2002, Employment Zones have helped 20,850 people into work. Of these, 14,743 have been helped into sustained employment. The information on each Employment Zone is in the table.

Employment Zone Number of people helped into Sustained employment (cumulative total up to 31 January 2002)
Birmingham 2,708
Brent 690
Brighton 859
Doncaster 480
Glasgow 1,730
Haringey 1,847
Liverpool 1,693
Middlesbrough 615
Newham 867
North West Wales 246
Nottingham 333
Plymouth 466
Southwark 1,136
Tower Hamlets 602
Heads of the Valley 471

Source:

Employment Zone Management Information

Employment Zone very in size and coverage

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