Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for what reasons his Department and the Skills Funding Agency have not agreed a data sharing protocol with the Work Programme contractors delivering the Skills Support for Work Programme participants in employment project in partnership with Newham College of Further Education.

The department has established an information sharing protocol enabling relevant data to be shared by Work Programme providers with all Skills Support for Work Programme providers. This involves providers first obtaining the participants’ consent, so their information can be shared.