Oral Answers to Questions

Martin Vickers Excerpts

Monday 1st September 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Harper]

The important thing is to see whether people who have health conditions are able to work. If we put people through a work capability assessment and they are clearly not able to work at all, we want to ensure that they get the appropriate help, but if people can work, we want to ensure that they do. That is why we have the Work programme and other schemes that give people proper support to get them into work.

[Martin Vickers (Cleethorpes) (Con)]

15. What assessment he has made of recent trends in employment in (a) North Lincolnshire and (b) North East Lincolnshire local authority areas.

[The Minister for Employment (Esther McVey)]

Simply put, the trends for employment are up. In North Lincolnshire, employment is up by 2,400 over the year and in North East Lincolnshire, employment is up by 600. Just like in the rest of the country, employment is up.

[Martin Vickers]

I thank the Minister for her reply and for her visit to my constituency a few weeks ago. Does she agree that it is not just Government policy that is leading to the fall in unemployment, but the excellent work that is done at jobcentres, such as the work that she witnessed at Immingham a few weeks ago?

[Esther McVey]

I thank my hon. Friend for inviting me up there to see the good work that is done on the ground at his local Jobcentre Plus, including the initiatives that are happening through the flexible fund and the work that is relevant to that specific area. I had a long conversation with Stuart Griffiths, the area manager, who explained how they are helping young people and how they are helping more and more people into work.