§ Mr. Colin Shepherdasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many successful applications for enterprise allowance have been made since 1 April 1983; what is the present number of applications in the stage of being processed; and how many applications have been adjudged successful in principle but have been deferred pending resource becoming available.
§ Mr. Alan Clark[pursuant to the reply, 2 April 1984, Vol. 57, c. 396]: By 29 February 1984, a total of 26,677 successful applications had been made to join the enterprise allowance scheme since its introduclion nationally on 1 August 1983. There were also 5,639 applications under consideration.
It is not normal practice to adjudge applications to be successful in principle but then defer them. However, since the scheme is proving extremely popular, the demand for places at present exceeds the number available 367W and potential applicants in all parts of the country are having to wait a number of weeks before they can pursue a formal application.
§ Mr. Colin Shepherdasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will set out in the Official Report a table indicating, in respect of the enterprise allowance scheme, the comparison for the Marshes region as a whole together with Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire in particular, covering (a) the numbers of places initially available, (b) any changes that have been made to that availability, (c) the number of successful applicants,(d) the number of unsuccessful applicants, (e) the number of applicants with applications currently in process, (f) the
Shropshire Hereford and Worcester Gloucestershire and Wiltshire* Total Number of places originally available† 176 263 338 777 Total number of places available‡ ║ 445 699 1,012 2,156 Number of successful applicants 254 391 404 1,049 Number of unsuccessful applicants 13 20 69 102 Number of applications under consideration 44 76 57 177 Numbers awaiting information sessions¶ 123 254 252 629 Numbers withdrawing from scheme 11 19 27 57 * Figures for this area are not available separately by county. † 1 August 1983 to 31 March 1984. ‡ 1 August 1983 to 31 March 1985. ║Includes figures relating to the extension of the scheme announced on 17 November 1983. ¶ Potential applicants must attend an information session before they can submit a formal application to join the scheme.