HC Deb 09 June 1998 vol 313 cc543-4W
Sir Paul Beresford

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, pursuant to his answer of 6 April 1998,Official Report, column92, which parliamentary constituencies are included in the Guildford unit of delivery for the New Deal; and, for each constituency, what is(a) the adult population,(b) the number of young persons aged 18 to 24 years unemployed,(c) the number of young persons aged 18 to 24 years unemployed who could be eligible to join the New Deal,(d) the number who have signed up under the New Deal,(e) the number placed in jobs under the New Deal since the scheme's commencement,(f) the number placed in unsubsidised jobs under the New Deal in the same period,(g) the number of young persons aged 18 to 24 years unemployed who found employment in 1997 and 1998,(h) the number of employers who have signed up to the New Deal and(i) the number of unemployed people who found employment in 1997 and 1998. [42568]

Mr. Andrew Smith

The parliamentary constituencies included in the Guildford unit of delivery are Aldershot; South-West Surrey; Surrey Heath; Bracknell; North-East Hampshire; Guildford; Mole Valley; Epsom and Ewell; Runnymede and Weybridge; Esher and Walton; and Woking. However, the information requested is not available by parliamentary constituency and so it is given for the Guildford New Deal unit of delivery or, where this is not possible, Guildford Local Authority district.

(a) According to the Census of Population, there were circa 100,000 people, aged 16 or over, resident in the Guildford local authority district in 1991. Figures for the adult population are not currently available by New Deal delivery unit.(b) As at April 1998, there are 941 18–24 year olds registered as unemployed in the Guildford New Deal delivery unit.(c) I refer the hon. Member to 25 February 1998,Official Report, column292, which provides a list of indicative planning assumptions for Gateway entrants, by unit of delivery, in 1998–99. The table shows that the planning assumption for Guildford unit of delivery is that 543 young people could be eligible to join New Deal, however this should not be seen as a precise estimate or forecast.(d) New Deal for 18–24 year olds was launched in Guildford on 6 April. Since then, 132 young people have joined New Deal.(e) and(f) After only a month of the Gateway period, the individual difficulties and problems faced by young people in this unit of delivery are still being addressed by referral to Gateway providers and the other three options. It is vital to the success of New Deal that participants are `job-ready' before referral to jobs.(g) In 1997, around 3,650 young people aged 18–24 were recorded as having left claimant unemployment for a job in the Guildford unit of delivery area. In addition, there will have been others, whose destination is recorded as unknown, some of whom would have left the register to take up a job. In the year to April 1998, the latest date for which figures are available, around 3,300 18–24 year olds left claimant unemployment for a job.(h) In the Guildford unit of delivery, 78 employers have signed Employer Agreements (i) In 1997, around 13,700 unemployed people of all ages left claimant unemployment for a job. The equivalent figure for the year to April 1998 is 12,300. As with answer(g) these figures will not include those whose destination is recorded as unknown.