§ Mr. MacleanTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many individuals of(a) Vietnamese nationality and (b) Chinese nationality have (i) participated in the New Deal and (ii) found jobs through the New Deal. [71094]
§ Mr. Andrew SmithResponsibility for the subject of this 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 Leigh Lewis to Mr. David Maclean, dated 23 February 1999:
As the Employment Service is an Executive Agency, the Secretary of State for Education and Employment has asked me to reply to your question about the numbers of people of Vietnamese and Chinese nationality who are participating and have found jobs through New Deal. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of the Agency.While details of an individual's nationality are not held, people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance are invited to indicate their ethnic origin.275WIn the period to the end of November 1998, 374 clients who declared their ethnic origin as Chinese entered the New Deal for 18–24 year olds. In the same period, 59 of these clients left the Gateway for unsubsidised jobs and a further 11 for subsidised jobs. There may also be some people of Chinese origin among those who chose not to declare their ethnic origin.Vietnamese claimants of Jobseeker's Allowance are not identified as a separate ethnic group. It is not therefore possible to produce figures for New Deal participants and job starts for this group.