Employment Service (Hansard, 1 December 1989)

§ Mr. Ashley
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will place a copy of the review of the organisation and staffing of the employment service, report No. 466, in the Library.
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§ Mr. Eggar
The document is a report of an internal review and is not appropriate for deposit in the Library.

§ Mr. David Davis
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment whether he has reached a decision on the future structure of the employment service; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Fowler
When the Prime Minister announced the Government's "Next Steps" initiative on 18 February 1988 at column 1149, the employment service was included in the first list of candidates for agency status. It is my intention that the employment service should be launched as an executive agency in April 1990.
My decision to launch the employment service as an executive agency will improve significantly its ability to help unemployed people back to work and to administer payment of unemployment benefits. As an agency the employment service will be set clear and challenging targets. It will also be given greater freedom to manage its operations effectively.
In considering how best the employment service can achieve its objectives as an agency I have decided that a new network of offices, bringing together the full range of employment service activities under one roof wherever possible, is the best way for the employment service to deliver its services as an agency. This development will represent a significant improvement on the present system where most people have to visit both a benefit office and a jobcentre as part of claiming benefit and looking for work.
Where appropriate the employment service will remodel existing offices but in other cases it will open new premises. These offices will be named "Employment Service" and will replace jobcentres and benefit offices.
The employment service will now establish a national network of some 1,100 to 1,200 employment service offices. The process will take a number of years, but the aim is to have the bulk of the network of integrated offices in place by 1992.