§ Mr. BarnesTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment, pursuant to his answer of 24 November 1994,Official Report, column 267, if he is now able to publish research carried out by his Department on the lengths of periods of disqualification from unemployment benefit following a finding of voluntary unemployment. [14369]
§ 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.
Letter from M. E. G. Fogden to Mr. Harry Barnes, dated 20 March 1995:
The Secretary of State has asked to reply to your question about research we commissioned into periods of disqualification from unemployment benefit.When I wrote to you on 24 November, I undertook to forward the results of this research, which were expected by the end of 1994. May I reiterate my letter to you of 18 January which contained details of the findings.Information about periods of disqualification from unemployment benefit, including those imposed following a finding voluntary unemployment, was gathered as part of research we commissioned into wider adjudication issues. I am enclosing an extract from the research data which provides a snap shot picture of average periods of disqualification imposed during October 1994. The results show 20W that 29% of disqualifications overall are for the full six months and that the average period for the remainder is 89 days. For leaving voluntary cases the proportion of disqualifications for the full six months is 25%.I hope this is helpful.NB: I have arranged for a copy of the annexes to be placed in the Library.