§ Mr. Gareth WardellTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many community action schemes have been approved by his Department for each county area in Wales; and how many extra jobs have been created by each scheme.
§ 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 Mr. M. Fogden to Mr. Gareth Wardell, dated 4 November 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 the number of Community Action schemes which have been approved for each county area in Wales and the number of extra jobs created by each scheme. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of the Agency.Unfortunately, I am unable to provide the information you have requested on Community Action for eachWelsh County Area as statistics of this nature are collected through my four Area Offices in Wales. The attached table shows the number of contracts which have been awarded to providing organisations and the number of Community Action places these contracts will create.Community Action is a new programme of help for people who have been unemployed for 12 months or more. It enables them to gain recent work experience by working on projects of benefit to local communities. An important feature of the programme is structured help in looking for work.Community Action is not employment but work experience, and the programme will be carefully monitored to ensure that job substitution does not take place. I am confident that the help offered through Community Action will significantly increase participants' chances of finding paid employment.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.
Community Action Wales Area Number of contracts Places Mid South 5 259 North Wales 8 197 South East 8 242 South West 7 240 TOTAL 938