Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of job centres on economic growth.

As announced in the recent Get Britain Working White Paper, we are reforming Jobcentre Plus and creating a new service that will enable everyone to access support to find good, meaningful work, and support to help them to progress in work, including through an enhanced focus on skills and careers advice. This new service will transform our ability to support people into work, help those on low pay to increase their earnings, and create a more flexible workforce for a fast changing, higher skilled jobs market. This transformation is expected to contribute significantly to economic growth by addressing local skills gaps and providing tailored support to meet the needs of local labour markets.

We are currently considering our evaluation strategy to assess the effectiveness, efficiency and impact of the new service. This includes funding in 2025/26 to take forward the first steps of building the new service through a pathfinder, as set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper.