§ Dr. GodmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment what was the cost of administering unemployment benefit in the Greenock travel-to-work area in each of the past five years.
§ 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 Dr. Norman Godman, dated 3 February 1994:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question concerning the cost of administering unemployment benefit in the Greenock travel-to-work area in each of the past five years.
Perhaps I should make it clear that as the Employment Service Is responsible for administering several other benefits in addition to Unemployment Benefit, it is not possible to provide information on the payment of Unemployment Benefit only. Therefore the figures relate to the administration costs for all benefits paid to clients. In addition, as our records of local office running costs are retained for only the last three complete financial years. I am consequently unable to provide information in respect of those financial years prior to 1990–91. The information below is in respect of the area covered by the Greenock and Port Glasgow offices, which more or less approximates to the Greenock travel-to-work area.
Given these provisos, the relevant costs, which include staff salary and other running costs, such as fuel and telecommunications, are as follows:
894W
Financial year Non-integrated £ Integrated £ Total costs £ 1990–91 606,942 Nil 606,942 1991–92 300,208 561,186 861,394 1992–93 Nil 1,235,560 1,235,560 These figures give a total cost for the three years of £2,703,896 broken down into £907,150 for costs related to Unemployment Benefit Offices (UBO) and £1,796,764 for those related to Employment Service Jobcentres (ESJ).
However, I must emphasise that these figures are not strictly comparable. As you may be aware, since 1990 the Employment Service has been pursuing a policy of bringing together Unemployment Benefit Offices and Jobcentres with the aim of providing a more efficient and effective service to our clients. Our Inverclyde offices have featured as part of this programme of integration, Greenock in November 1991 and Port Glasgow in March 1991. The figures provided for the periods after integration, therefore, include job broking costs as well as benefit administration costs.
Given the fact that staff in our integrated offices are responsible for all aspects of Employment Service work, it is not possible to provide any further accurate or meaningful breakdowns in these costs.
I hope this is helpful.