Restart (Hansard, 11 May 1993)

§ Mr. McLoughlin

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 Mr. Tony Worthington, dated 11 May 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 about Restart Courses. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of the Agency.

Restart Courses are short courses normally lasting for one week. They aim to help those people who have been unemployed for a long time and are having the most difficulty in getting back to work. They are not an alternative to regular job search or other employment or training 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.

Since 1990, people who have been unemployed for two years or more who refuse to take up a place on an Employment Department employment or training programme at their Restart interview, are asked to attend a Restart Course.

I have set out the information you have asked for in the table attached. You will see that we collect information about starters on Restart Courses on a quarterly basis. All those that attend Restart Courses are unemployed and claiming state benefit.

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.

Starters and completers on restart courses April 1991 to March 1993
	1991–92 starters	1992–93 starters
April to June	38,651	26,440
July to September	36,805	28,577
October to December	29,229	32,300
January to March	29,155	37,388
Total	133,840	124,705