§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment if she will publish a table showing the results of Restart interviews for the period 1 April 1992 to 1 December 1992 on the same basis as the answer to the hon. Member for Birmingham, Ladywood (Ms. Short), of 29 October,Official Report, columns 834–36.
§ Mr. McLoughlinResponsibility 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. Fogden to Mr. Jim Cousins, dated 10 February 1993:
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Outcomes of Restart interviews April 1992—December 1992 Region Interviews Job placings ET Jobclub Restart courses EAS Northern 126,957 557 3,938 4,454 5,995 112 Yorkshire and Humberside 152,981 1,683 6,301 4,840 7,857 518 East Midlands and Eastern 181,669 2,345 4,868 7,075 6,524 507 London and South East 624,657 9,826 14,988 27,755 19,079 2,087 South West 141,185 1,211 4,770 5,467 4,874 512 Office for Wales 106,575 1,518 3,648 3,884 4,133 250 West Midlands 190,619 2,333 5,875 6,881 9,287 552
Numbers in receipt of bridging allowance—by ES region October 1992-December 1992 October November December Northern 490 388 368 Yorkshire and Humberside 702 618 672 East Midlands 840 728 700 London and South East 1,971 1,771 1,877 South West 611 540 620 Wales 439 384 407 West Midlands 908 687 818 North West 1,189 855 1,056 Scotland 1,154 813 806 Total 8,304 6,764 7,324 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 her about the results of Restart interviews conducted during the period April to December 1992. This is something which falls with the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of the Agency.
The information you asked for is given in the attached annex. As you will appreciate, these figures reflect only the direct results of Restart. We do not know how many people subsequently take up a job or place on an employment or training programme as a result of the guidance given to them at their interview. It is through these indirect results of the help which advisers give clients in reviewing their options for returning to work that Restart has its effect.
An indication of the scale of that effect is provided by the report "The Restart Effect" which was recently published by the independent Policy Studies Institute. It is based on an analysis of the largest survey of unemployed people in the United Kingdom since 1980. This showed conclusively that the programme had a major effect in reducing the time it takes people to leave unemployment, to get a job and to enter Employment Training, particularly for those people who were at a disadvantage within the labour market.
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.
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Region Interviews Job placings ET Jobclub Restart courses EAS North West 320,600 3,003 7,369 10,900 13,483 535 Office for Scotland 208,639 3,305 5,944 7,296 8,071 424 Great Britain 2,053,882 25,781 57,701 78,552 79,303 5,497