Training (Hansard, 18 June 1999)

§ Mr. Healey
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if a participant on a European Social Fund course of training is covered by the Department's Analogous Industrial Injuries Compensation Scheme. [85755]

§ Mr. Andrew Smith
Unemployed people participating in DfEE funded work-based training schemes which are receiving ESF assistance are covered by the DfEE's Analogous Industrial Injuries Scheme. Unemployed people who are participating in Work Trials, or the new deal, programmes supported by the Employment Service, are also covered by the scheme.
The Analogous Industrial Injuries Scheme applies only to ESF courses where the matched funding comes from DfEE funding for programmes for which my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has already decided it may apply. People participating in other courses supported by ESF are not covered by the scheme.

§ Mr. Healey
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what is the maximum number of hours per week that a trainee on a European Social Fund training course can undertake without affecting his entitlement to receive jobseeker's allowance. [85752]

§ Mr. Andrew Smith
A jobseeker may undertake a training course, whether or not part-funded by ESF, providing he is not a full-time student and he continues to meet the Jobseeker's Allowance entitlement conditions. An Employment Service Adjudication Officer will determine, in each case, whether the jobseeker is a full-time or a part-time student.
Under the Jobseekers Act 1995, a person must be available for employment in order to be entitled to JSA, and under regulation 11 of the Jobseeker's Allowance Regulations 1996, a part-time student may, in prescribed circumstances, be available for employment. The maximum number of hours of study a student can undertake and still be considered a 'part-time' student is not fixed by the Regulations in every case. Full-time student' is defined in regulation 1(3). Paragraph (b)(ii) of that definition specifies an FEFC funded course of more than 16 hours a week, but paragraph (b)(i) which deals with non-FEFC funded courses, does not specify a number of hours.