Employment Service (Hansard, 31 January 1995)

§ Miss Widdecombe

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 D. Grover to Ms Harriet Harman, dated 31 January 1995: The Secretary of State has asked me, in the absence on leave of the Chief Executive, to reply to your questions about the London and South East Region (Region) of the Employment Service (ES). Unemployment within the Region has fallen by almost 15% during the twelve months to December 1994. Indeed, in some locations such as Andover in Hampshire, the fall has been almost 35% Such falls indicate that the economy is in much better shape and, in part, reflect the success of ES initiatives to help people back into employment. Falling unemployment means that the ES, whose staff deal directly with the payment of benefits as well as offering job and other opportunities, has experienced a fall in the number of people using its services. ES managers have reacted swiftly to these changes to ensure that they are staffed to meet need and that taxpayers" money is not wasted. Inevitably, at a time of falling unemployment, this has led to a reduction in staffing levels As regards staffing, you will appreciate that the ES receives funding for staffing on the basis of need, i.e. the level of unemployment. Falling unemployment means that we now need less staff and can anticipate lower staffing levels for the financial year ahead. We need to manage our budgets and staffing levels to meet this new need. There are over 300 Jobcentres across the Region and unemployment is falling at differing rates at particular locations, so balancing staffing levels to need is a particularly challenging task. It has been necessary to redeploy staff between offices and between functions to ensure that a balance is maintained between staffing levels and the needs of our clients. Inevitably, staff have undertaken work in different areas of ES activity in the short term to meet short term need. The response to these changing needs from ES staff has been commendably high, as you will note from our continuing performance in the delivery of services to our customers. As regards finances, in the nine month period from April to December 1994, the Region had spent £267.1 million or 73.8% of its annual budget. Performance across all areas of our business is strong. The help offered to unemployed people continues to increase; the Region has placed almost 380,000 people in employment (April-December 1994) and I estimate that this figure will have increased to approaching 500,000 people by the end of March. Over one in three of these placings are long-term unemployed clients. At this point in time, the Region are 12% above their unemployed placings target in this area. Indeed, in almost every area of work, the Region are ahead of their targets and continue to offer an improved service to jobseekers. As regards the Inspection Service in the Region, as at December 1994 its targets for the full operational year (to April) for authorised prosecutions and claimants withdrawing claims had already been almost matched or exceeded. I hope this is helpful.