Jobcentre Plus: Closures

Stephen Kerr Excerpts
Thursday 6th July 2017

(7 years, 5 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Stephen Kerr Portrait Stephen Kerr (Stirling) (Con)
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Does my right hon. Friend agree that

“the purpose of the estates review is to make sure that the estate is effective and reflects demands on the…service”?

Those are not my words but those of the Scottish National party Government Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Michael Matheson MSP, in relation to Police Scotland. They show that the SNP argue for rationalising the public services estate when it suits them.

David Gauke Portrait Mr Gauke
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My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. Governments have to ensure that public money is spent sensibly, and one of the ways of doing that is by rationalising the estate. Keeping open under-utilised jobcentres is simply not a good use of taxpayers’ money, and it does not do claimants any good either.