Employment Schemes

HC Deb 15 April 1986 vol 95 cc359-61W

Mr. Gordon Brown

asked the Paymaster General how many workers he currently estimates will be on employment schemes in each year to 1989; and if he will list the estimated numbers for each scheme.

Mr. Lang

The estimated number on each of the employment schemes at the end of each financial year is given in the table.

	March 1987	March 1988	March 1989
Community Industry	8,000	8,000	8,000
Community Programme	255,000	255,000	255,000
Enterprise Allowance Scheme	80,000	94,000	94,000
Job Release Scheme	27,000	27,000	26,000
Job Splitting Scheme	1,000	1,000	1,000
New Workers Scheme	63,000	76,000	76,000
Total	434,000	461,000	460,000

Mr. Gordon Brown

asked the Paymaster General how many entrants there have been in (a) England, (b) Scotland and (c) Wales to the enterprise allowance scheme since its inauguration; how many entered in 1985–86; and how many he expects to enter in 1986–87.

Mr. Trippier

The number of entrants since the beginning of the pilot scheme to the end of February 1986 is as follows:

	Number
England	110,010
Scotland	11,153
Wales	8,977
Total	130,140

Final figures are not yet available for 1985–86, but the following provides a breakdown of those joining the scheme between 1 April 1985 and 28 February 1986.

	Number
England	44,882
Scotland	4,659
Wales	3,602
Total	53,143

There will be 86,000 places available in Great Britain in 1986–87 and 100,000 per year thereafter. The MSC is now finalising the revised allocation of the extra places for 1986–87 as a result of the expansion announced in the Budget and therefore no breakdown of these figures is available for England, Scotland and Wales.

Mr. Gordon Brown

asked the Paymaster General what is the estimated proportion of enterprise allowance scheme entrants who are still in business after (a) six months, (b) one year and (c) two years.

Mr. Trippier

Statistics collected by the Manpower Services Commission show that 94 per cent. of entrants to the enterprise allowance scheme are still in business after six months and that 89 per cent. of the scheme's entrants are still trading at the end of 12 months.

There is no information available about the proportion of EAS entrants who are still in business two years after joining the scheme. However, a survey of entrants who joined the pilot scheme showed that 61 per cent. of those who took advantage of the full year's allowance were still trading two years later or three years after joining the scheme.

Mr. Gordon Brown

asked the Paymaster General how many jobs he estimates to be generated by the enterprise allowance scheme.

Mr. Trippier

Latest survey evidence into the pilot enterprise allowance scheme shows that for every 100 continuing business three years after start up 99 additional new jobs had been created, of which 50 were full time and 49 were part time. This survey supplements evidence from an earlier survey of the national scheme which showed that for every 100 continuing business 15 months after start up, 68 additional new jobs had been created 24 of which were full time and 44 were part time.