Oral Answers to Questions

Cathy Jamieson Excerpts

Monday 19th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Chris Grayling]

I have no intention of taking any lessons from the previous Government on child poverty—[Hon. Members: “Answer the question.”] The Labour party promised to halve child poverty by 2010, but missed that target by 1 million children. Its failure on child poverty was lamentable. By contrast, this Government will take steps over the next few years to reduce child poverty and to ensure that we do the right thing by the people in this country who are at the bottom end of the income scale.

[Cathy Jamieson (Kilmarnock and Loudoun) (Lab/Co-op)]

8. What estimate he has made of the number of jobs in Kilmarnock and Loudoun constituency supported by the future jobs fund.

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Chris Grayling)]

We do not collect data on a constituency-only basis, so I cannot help the hon. Lady with a detailed response to her question.

[Cathy Jamieson]

As the Minister seems to have no idea about the number of young people on future jobs fund projects at the moment, perhaps he will consider coming to my constituency and speaking face to face to those young people who feel that those jobs have been downgraded by this Government’s attitude to them as unsustainable. Will he ensure that each one of those young people is in a sustainable job within the next 24 months?

[Chris Grayling]

I just do not think that Labour Members understand. If someone is given a six-month job under the tag of the future jobs fund, the word “future” does not apply. It is things like apprenticeships that are genuinely about the future and about creating sustainable employment. That is why this Government announced 50,000 extra apprenticeships. That is why the work programme will focus on long-term opportunities. The tragedy of the future jobs fund is that it is precisely not a future jobs fund: it is a six-month work placement, at substantial cost to the taxpayer, at the end of which—in almost all cases—there is no job. That is a tragedy, but the fund was all about the engineering of figures under the previous Government—unlike the long-term strategy under this Government.