§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr. Chris Pond)Copies of the UK's 2003 National Action Plan for Employment have been placed in the Library today.
The EU Treaty requires Member States to submit an annual report setting out the principal measures being taken at a national level to implement national employment policies in the context of the agreed EU Employment Guidelines.
The National Action Plan responds to this requirement. Reporting across the ten Guidelines, it includes detail about: how the UK's institutional and regulatory environment helps encourage job creation and removes barriers to entering and progressing in the labour market; how measures like the New Deal and Jobcentre Plus encourage people back into work; how steps are being taken to ensure that work pays by eliminating unemployment and poverty traps; and how measures are being developed that help create a skilled and adaptable workforce.
In preparing this plan, the Government have worked closely with representatives from local government and the voluntary sector, as well as the CBI and TUC, so that we have been able to include a broad range of examples of how the objectives of creating more and better jobs and greater social cohesion are being pursued in the UK.