HC Deb 01 December 1993 vol 233 cc617-9W
Ms Short

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many unemployed people have been referred to jobplan workshops by employment service

to regular job search or other employment or ttraining programmes. Essentially they provide people with the opportunity to explore all the options open to them and give them confidence to take the next step back to work. People who have been unemployed for two years or more who refuse or fail to take up a place on an Employment Department employment or training programme at their Restart interview, are asked to attend a Restart Course. As your question has raised a number of specific points, I am setting out the information you have asked for in the two tables attached—one deals with all Restart Course attenders, the other just those covered by the requirement to attend. I hope this is helpful. As decided by the Administration Committee of the House of Commons, Chief Executive replies to written Parliamentary Questions will now be published in the Official Report. I will also place a copy of this letter in the Library of the House.

counsellors since April for each region and for Great Britain as a whole; how many of them were unemployed for over one year; how many attended and completed the workshop; what were the outcomes of the participants;

how many had benefit penalties imposed for not attending or failing to complete their attendance at the jobplan workshop; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Michael Forsyth

Responsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service Agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from M. E. G. Fogden to Ms Clare Short, dated 1 December 1993: As the Employment Service is an Executive Agency, the Secretary of State has asked me to write to you direct to respond to your Parliamentary Question to him about Jobplan Workshops. These are matters which fall within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of the Agency. Jobplan is a new programme which aims to help people who have been unemployed for a year or more to compete successfully for jobs and opportunities. About 80 per cent. of the people who first become unemployed leave the unemployment register within a year. For those who remain unemployed, confidence and the intensity of jobsearch can decrease. They may believe that there are very few positive options open to them. It is therefore important that at this stage people take a fresh look at their

All Jobplan Attenders April 1993-October 1993
Northern Yorkshire and Humberside East Midlands and Eastern Lonon and south East South west Wales West Midlands North West Scotland Total
1. Referrals to Jobplan1 13,098 21,320 22,965 118,264 21,981 10,499 24,148 32,755 26,517 291,547
2. Starters 8,121 12,168 13,045 66,691 13,344 5,901 14,112 17,372 14,092 164,846
3. Total completers 7,556 11,170 11,972 61,291 12,208 5,343 12,810 15,971 12,694 151,015
Completers who agreed to follow up:
Jobs 2,319 3,355 3,906 19,244 3,884 1,742 3,446 4,951 4,318 47,165
Training For Work 2,472 3,364 3,206 17,101 4,455 1,397 4,699 4,892 3,840 45,426
Jobclub 843 1,646 1,795 11,339 1,691 896 2,075 1,797 1,759 23,841
Other employment, training and related opportunities 2,993 5,748 4,781 30,977 5,356 2,734 5,201 8,355 5,214 72,359
4. Total number of people with an outcome to follow up2 6,787 10,481 11,083 57,521 11,443 4,851 12,059 15,042 11,487 140,754
5. Number of decisions received from the Benefits Agency3 491 1,112 867 4,040 661 396 585 2,024 2,527 12,703
1 This figure includes people who fail to attend the workshop they are booked for who are rebooked for another event. All people referred to Jobplan have been unemployed over 1 year except a small number (1,582) from areas affected by colliery closures where special dispensation exists.
2 Some people will be referred to more than one option at the end of the workshop.
3The Benefits Agency have combined the number of reductions for non attendance/non completion of Jobplan with the number of reductions for non attendance/non completion of Restart Courses. Therefore we can only supply the number of decisions that have been made. About 87 per cent. of all decisions lead to a reduction of up to 40 per cent. of personal Income Support.