Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will investigate the reasons for the level of sanctioning of jobseeker's allowance in the Greater Manchester area being more than a third higher than the national average.

We deploy a comprehensive monitoring regime to check that sanctions are applied appropriately across our network. Where any site is making significantly more or fewer referrals than we would typically expect, we review their activity to ensure sanctions are being applied appropriately.