Business of the House Debate

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Department: Leader of the House

Business of the House

Charlie Elphicke Excerpts
Thursday 1st November 2012

(11 years, 6 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Charlie Elphicke Portrait Charlie Elphicke (Dover) (Con)
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May we have a debate on unemployment? In my constituency, Dover and Deal have seen unemployment rocketing over the last Parliament. The latest quarterly claimant count figures are welcome, showing a decrease of 5%. That is a great result, but we should look at what more we can do to win the war on unemployment.

Lord Lansley Portrait Mr Lansley
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My hon. Friend is absolutely right. In that context, support for the Work programme is terrifically important. It is an unprecedented campaign to help the longer-term unemployed to get back into work. Encouraging as those employment figures were, we know that a substantial number of people have been out of work for some considerable time. The Work programme is directed to that, and 693,000 people are already accessing support through it.