Employment Service (Hansard, 2 December 1993)

§ 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 2 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 Questions to him about the outcome of interviews carried out by the Employment Service for (i) 1992–93 and (ii) 1993–94, showing the (a) number of adviser new claims taken, (b) number of administrative officers new claims taken, (c) total new claims not pursued, (d) first letters sent for main Restart interview, (e) contact rate with Restart interview client group, (f) main Restart interviews, (g) other interviews, (h) caseload interviews, (i) offers not made, (j) offers not accepted, (k) job placings, (l) EAS (Business Start Up) starts, (m) ET/TFW starts, (n) Employment Action starts, (o) other benefit starts, (p) sign offs as a direct result of client adviser action, (q) Restart Course starts, (r) Jobplan Workshop starts, (s) Jobclub starts, (t) Job Interview Guarantee starts, (u) Job Search Seminar starts, (v) attended Job Referral Service interviews and (w) Job Review Workshops starts. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of the Agency. It is important to recognise that these figures are only a partial indication of the effectiveness of advisory interviews. Equally important is the effect they have in causing people to leave the register earlier than they would otherwise have done. The attached table contains the information you requested. During the 1992–93 operational year all the information you asked for was collected and is represented in column 1 of the table. The Employment Service has changed its performance monitoring at national level for 1993–94 and the information for this year cannot be given in exactly the same format as the previous year. Information for April 1993 to October 1993 is shown in column 2 of the table. Notes at the foot of the table explain the differences in the information collected for each year. 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.

	1	2
	1992–93	1993–94 (to October)
EO New Claims Taken	4.2 million	1.3 million
AO New Claims Taken	270,000	1.3 million
Total New Claims Not Pursued	481,000	237,000
1st Letters Sent (main Restart int)	3.2 million	2 million
Contact Rate	99 per cent.	99 per cent.
Main Restart interviews	2.4 million	1.6 million
Other Restart Interviews¹	364,000	302,400
Caseload Restart Interviews	87,000	—
Offers Not Made²	419,000	—
Offers Not Accepted²	438,000	—
Outcomes—All Advisory Interviews:³	—	—
Job Placings	112,000	65,300
EAS (Business Start Up) Starts	12,300	—
ET/TFW Starts	115,000	—
Employment Action Starts	29,000	—
ED Programme Starts—client left register	—	85,000
Other Benefit Starts	104,000	59,400
Sign Offs—Result of CA Action	78,300	54,000
Restart Course Starts	116,460	—
Jobclub Starts	142,617	—
JIG Starts	50,340	—
Job Search Seminar Starts	66,046	—
Attended Job Referral Service	118,002	—

673W

	1	2
	1992–93	1993–94 (to October)
Job Review Workshop Starts	32,755	—
ED Programme Starts—client remains on register	—	423,173
¹For 1993–94 this category includes Follow-Up and Caseload Restart Interviews.
²Not Collected in 1993–94.
³For 1993–94 starts on programmes are not collected individually but included in one of two categories.