§ Mr. ByersTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many people are engaged in part-time work under the community action programme.
513W
§ Mr. Michael ForsythResponsibility 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 Mr. Stephen Byers, dated 13 December 1993:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your Question about the number of people engaged in part-time work under the Community Action programme.It may help if I explain the background to Community Action and our plans for the provision of the announced places.Community Action is a programme to help long-term unemployed people back into work, by providing work experience on projects of benefit to local communities. Following the Budget, a further 35,000 opportunities will be made available between now and 1995/6 in addition to the 60,000 announced last Spring.Community Action opportunities are being delivered, in the main, by voluntary/charitable organisations and my people in the Employment Service Regional Offices are responsible for contracting with them. At 26 November, the latest date for which figures are available, 2,876 places had been taken up by long term unemployed people and numbers are increasing steadily. The programme is planned to build to 20,000 filled places by the end of 1994.I hope this is helpful.