§ Ms. ShortTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment (1) if he will provide details of the number of Manpower Services Commission staff and participants employed on urban greening initiatives in the voluntary sector;
(2) if he will provide details of the number of Manpower Services Commission staff and participants employed on urban greening initiatives in local authority sponsored schemes.
§ Mr. NichollsThere are no Manpower Services Commission staff employed directly on urban greening initiatives under the community programme. One of the programme's national initiatives, UL2000, includes amongst its five themes "greening the cities", but separate figures of participants on the different themes are not available.
At 31 March some 6,782 people were employed on the UK2000 community programme national initiative in Great Britain. Of these, some two thirds are employed in the voluntary sector and around one fifth in local authorities.