§ Mr. DewarTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list the target figure in the Employment Service performance agreements for the numbers of claimants to be referred for adjudication for the current year, in each of the last three years and the coming year; and how many in each case he estimates lost, or will lose, entitlement to benefit as a consequence.
§ Miss WiddecombeResponsibility 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.
1091WLetter from M. E. G. Fogden to Mr. Donald Dewar, dated 1 November 1994:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about target figures in the Employment Service Annual Performance Agreement (APA) for the number of claimants referred to adjudication, and the number of claimants who lost, or will lose benefit as a result of referral.We do not currently have, and never have had, a target in our APA for the overall number of submissions to adjudication. Our APA for 1994–95 contains a target of "135,000 submissions to adjudication where there is an arguable case with supporting information to show that the claimant is not available for, actively seeking or willing to accept work." This is the first APA to contain a target relating to the number of submissions to adjudication.I am currently negotiating our APA for 1995–96 with officials in the Employment Department acting on behalf of the Secretary of State. It is too early in these negotiations to confirm whether it will include a target relating to the level of adjudication referrals, or what that level might be.The information you have requested on the number of decisions and disallowances is not fully available. However, the attached tables give details of the number of decisions and disallowances for the four questions covered by our APA target; availability for employment, restricted availability, actively seeking employment and refusal of employment. The data relates to the past three years and for the quarter ending 30 June. More recent information is not currently available.
Table 1: Number of decisions made 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 Q/E 30 June 1994 Availability 86,336 87,328 80,248 19,190 Restricted Availability 44,672 39,642 33,869 8,166 Actively Seeking Employment 8,539 6,070 8,912 3,666 Refusal of Employment 2,789 1,824 3,257 1,858 Total 142,336 134,864 126,286 32,880
Table 2: Number of disallowances 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 Q/E 30 June 1994 Availability 49,736 49,463 51,729 14,911 Restricted Availability 14,467 13,332 16,562 5,323 Actively Seeking Employment 2,598 2,555 6,274 3,045 Refusal of Employment 979 685 1,643 1,118 Total 67,780 66,035 76,208 24,397