§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many individuals his Department has recruited under the New Deal for Young People. [91886]
§ Ms JowellI refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office to my hon. Friend the Member for Slough (Fiona Mactaggart) on 25 May 1999,Official Report, column 116.
The reply of 25 May 1999 gave the number of new deal staff recruited into the Department as of 1 April 1999. Since then, the Department has recruited three further employees under the new deal programme. We have now recruited a total of 11 staff, of whom five are in the 18–24-year-old category.