Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he has made an assessment of the effect of jobcentre and Jobcentre Plus closures on levels of employment.

As a large employer we understand the potential impact that any closure or relocation of an office may have. This is why we carefully considered the wider impacts on local communities in reviewing our estate. The sites we intend to keep were identified as part of our longer-term strategy.

The increased use of digital services means that many offices are underutilised; meaning that we are spending money on rent for space that is unused rather than on services and support. Our plans seek to redress that. The department is committed to retaining an accessible jobcentre network and continuing to serve customers in all areas. We are recruiting and expect to have more work coaches in March 2018 compared to today.

We will work to minimise the need for redundancy wherever we can, and seek to redeploy colleagues into new roles, but before any final decisions about redundancies are made, there will be full consultation with affected colleagues and trade unions.