§ Mr. WillettsTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list the employment initiatives that are in place, who is eligible for each initiative, what help is offered in each case, and which schemes will be affected by the Minister for Social Exclusion's statement of 16th October. [78328]
§ Mr. Nicholas BrownDetails of our employment programmes are set out in Appendix 3 of the Departmental Report 2002 (Cm 5424), a copy of which is available in the Library.
Our policies have created a strong economy geared to delivering stability, low inflation and sound public finances. Alongside this, our labour market policies promote attachment to the job market. As a result of our policies we have around the lowest number of unemployed people in a quarter century, and more people in work than ever before, with an increase in overall employment of almost 200 000 in the last year.
We are actively considering what more can be done to streamline our welfare to work programmes, achieve even greater coherence between the New Deals, and transfer lessons learnt into mainstream provision. But as my hon. Friend the Minister for Social Exclusion has made clear we have no plans to stop running Action Teams for Jobs, Employment Zones or the ethnic minority outreach service.