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26 Nov 2008 : Column 1984Wcontinued
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many jobseekers allowance claimants there were per customer-facing Jobcentre Plus staff member in each region in each quarter of each of the last 10 years; and if he will make a statement. [230439]
Mr. McNulty: The information requested is not available.
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) frontline and (b) other staff employed by Jobcentre Plus and its predecessor in each year since 1997; and how many he expects to be employed in each of the next five years. [235350]
Mr. McNulty: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the chief executive of Jobcentre Plus. I have asked the acting chief executive to provide the hon. Member with the information requested.
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking what estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) frontline and (b) other staff employed by Jobcentre Plus and its predecessor in each year since 1997; and how many he expects to be employed in each of the next 5 years. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
The staffing information broken down by frontline and other staff is not available prior to April 2003 as data is deleted from our information source prior to this date for capacity reasons.
The table below provides the number of full-time equivalent staff employed in (a) frontline offices and (b) other staff at March in each year from March 2004 to March 2008.
Frontline staff | Other staff | |
Frontline staff includes all operational staff in Jobcentres, Benefit Delivery and Contact Centres, including support staff. Other staff includes staff in National Directorates providing
general support. In 2006, some operational support functions such as Human Resource and Finance were centralised into National Directorates, resulting in an increase in "Other staff.
Our plans for future years are under active review. We have already allocated an additional 2,200 staff to the frontline for the remainder of 2008/09. By March 2009 Jobcentre Plus expects to have employed 67,653 full-time equivalent staff and we expect to increase frontline staffing further in 2009/10 and 2010/11 in light of the rising economic challenges.
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many (a) full-time and (b) part-time staff were employed in Jobcentre Plus offices in each month of the last five years (i) in total and (ii) broken down by the smallest geographical area for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [239312]
Mr. McNulty: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the acting chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, Mel Groves. I have asked him to provide the hon. Member with the information requested.
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking how many a) full time and b) part time staff were employed in Jobcentre Plus offices in each month of the last 5 years i) in total and ii) broken down by the smallest geographical area for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
We are able to provide the information you requested from April 2005 to date, and broken down by Government Office region. Details can be found on the attached Annex. Data capacity limitations mean that earlier information is not available and,
given the major restructuring across Jobcentre Plus in recent years, the Government office region is the smallest area for which consistent information can be shown.
The Secretary of State recently announced plans for Jobcentre Plus to have 6,000 more staff than the original assumption to enable us to respond to increasing numbers of customers. We do not yet have the detailed plans which describe the revised numbers for this year below a national level.
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