Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many jobs have been created by the Kickstart Scheme in (1) England, and (2) each English region.

We are pleased to say that, as of the 8^th September, over 69,000 young people have started Kickstart jobs. Over 188,000 jobs have been made available for young people to apply for through the Kickstart Scheme with over 281,000 jobs approved for funding by the Scheme.

In England, over 163,000 jobs have been made available for young people to apply for as well as over 59,000 starts. The table below lists the number of Kickstart jobs which have been made available and started by young people to date by English region. The figures used are correct as of the 8^th September and these figures have been rounded according to departmental standards.

Although care is taken when processing and analysing Kickstart applications, referrals and starts, the data collected might be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system, which has been developed quickly.

The management information presented here has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics, but is provided in the interests of transparency. Work is ongoing to improve the quality of information available for the programme.