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28 Jan 2009 : Column 565W—continued
Employment Schemes: Contracts
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions which employment service contractors in each region did not have their contract for employment services renewed under each (a) New Deal, (b) Employment Zone and (c) Pathways to Work programme in each of the last eight years; and if he will make a statement. [246548]
Mr. McNulty: The information requested in relation to (a) New Deal contracts is not held centrally and can be provided only at disproportionate cost. The information requested in relation to (b) Employment Zone contracts is provided in the following table. Provider-led Pathways to Work contracts (c) were let in two phases in December 2007 and April 2008 and the earliest date for renewal of any of these contracts will be 2010.
A large number of bids for DWP contracts are received each year from a diverse range of public, private and voluntary sector organisations. All contracts are procured through open and fair competition in accordance with public procurement policy and EU regulations. Contracts are awarded to the bidder who offers the best quality and value for money against objective and published criteria, using fair and open competitions.
Delivery of welfare to work services by the private and voluntary sectors is an important feature of our welfare reform strategy. We set out last February our future approach to commissioning welfare to work (Cmnd 7363) and last month's White Paper (Cmnd 7506) described how we intended to devolve more powers to private, public and voluntary providers.
| Employment Zone | Former contractor | Contract end date |
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much was paid to (a) private and (b) voluntary sector employment service contractors in each region under each (i) New Deal, (ii) Employment Zone and (iii) Pathways to Work programme in each of the last eight years; and if he will make a statement. [246569]
Mr. McNulty: The information requested is not held centrally and is available only at disproportionate cost.
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the (a) agreed contract employment target, (b) award payment structure per client and (c) names were of each (i) private and (ii) voluntary contractor for each (A) New Deal, (B) Employment Zone and (C) Pathways to Work programme in each region that involved contracting out employment services in each of the last eight years; and if he will make a statement. [246595]
Mr. McNulty:
The information requested in relation to contract employment targets and the award payment structure for clients is not held centrally and could be
provided only at disproportionate cost. However, the names of each (i) private and (ii) voluntary contractor for each of the current (A) new deal (B) employment zone and (C) pathways to work programme (phases 1 and 2) in each region are shown in the following tables. For completeness, the names of the public sector organisation delivering these programmes is also included.
Delivery of welfare to work services by the private, voluntary and public sectors is an important feature of our welfare reform strategy. We set out last February our future approach to commissioning welfare to work (Cmnd 7363) and last month’s White Paper (Cmnd 7506) described how we intended to devolve more powers to private, public and voluntary providers.
| Region | Voluntary sector providers |
| Employment zone contracts | |
| Region | Private sector providers |
| Region | Voluntary Sector providers |
| Provider led pathways to work phase 1 | |
| Region | Private sector providers |
|
Seetec Business Technology Centre Ltd., Work Directions UK Ltd. | |
| Region | Voluntary sector providers |
| Provider led pathways to work phase 2 | |
| Region | Private sector providers |
| Region | Voluntary sector providers |
| Region | Public sector providers |
Employment Schemes: English Language
Damian Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions to how many (a) UK citizens, (b) non-UK EU citizens and (c) others his Department and Jobcentre Plus offered an English for Speakers of Other Languages course in order to help them secure employment in the last 12 months; and at what cost to the public purse such offers were taken up. [249197]
Mr. McNulty: The information requested is not routinely collected and could be made available only at disproportionate cost.
WP and Jobcentre Plus do not collect data on national origin as part of the skills referral system. Jobcentre Plus signposts customers to provision made available through Jobcentre Plus New Deal, the Learning and Skills Council, local authorities and other organisations from the public and voluntary sector. Language support is not delivered in isolation but as an integral component within a suite of basic skills provision delivered through programmes such as New Deal and the Learning and Skills Council’s Employability Skills Programme.
Jobcentre Plus funded provision is only available to customers who have the legal right to work in the UK and, furthermore, have qualified to receive benefits. It is therefore right and proper that those who are expected to contribute to the UK economy should be supported in their efforts to do so.
Housing Benefit: Greater London
Mr. Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people were in receipt of housing benefit in each London borough in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [249555]
Kitty Ussher: The available information is in the following table.
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