§ Mr. LeeTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many people attended a restart interview in the six months ended September, and what were the results of those interviews.
148W
Mr. JacksonThe restart interview programme provides a framework within which the Employment Service provides help for long-term unemployed people. It provides a gateway to the range of employment and training opportunities available as well as being a means of ensuring that claimants remain available for and are actively seeking work.
During the period in question 630,000 people were interviewed and immediately following their interview 10,500 started work, 35,600 began training under employment training, 27,300 started in job club, 14,400 started a restart course and 4,200 attended an enterprise allowance scheme awareness day.
These figures reflect only the direct results of restart. We do not know how many people subsequently take up a job or a place on an employment or training programme as a result of the guidance given to them at their interview.
Over the same period the Employment Service as a whole placed 118,000 long-term unemployed people into work, 74,500 into employment training, 68,600 into job club and 7,700 into enterprise allowance schemes.