Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, where the first quarterly Customer Satisfaction Measure survey of the Restart Scheme is published; and how that result of that survey are being used to improve the future delivery of the Restart Scheme.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Customer Satisfaction Measure (CSM) results are not published. Although DWP has not undertaken to publish the CSM results, it retains the right to do so in the future.
The purpose of the CSM is to give DWP independent evidence, at national and contract level, regarding customer satisfaction, which can be used to inform:
The results of the first quarterly survey, and future surveys, will form a key part of Restart Scheme providers’ monthly discussions with their DWP performance managers.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which organisations have received funding as part of the Restart Scheme; and how much funding each organisation has received since commencement of that scheme to 18 May 2022.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Value of the Contracts for Restart (£2.5billion) is detailed on Contracts Finder. This covers the three-year referral period and service delivery. A review of the Restart Programme is being undertaken following the first full year of delivery. Any changes will be published on Contracts Finder in Autumn 2022.
The following Prime organisations were awarded Contracts to deliver the Restart Scheme.
G4S Facilities Management (UK) Ltd. |
MAXIMUS UK Services Limited |
Reed in Partnership |
Serco Group |
Jobs 22 Ltd |
Ingeus UK Ltd |
Fedcap Employment Limited |
Seetec Pluss Ltd |
The Restart contracts are accessible on Contracts Finder using the following link Restart Scheme - Contracts Finder. In relation to funding, under the Governments Transparency agenda, all spend data over £25,000 is published and can be found at GOV.UK. Spend is updated on a quarterly basis with the latest update published in March 2022.
Asked by: Alison McGovern (Labour - Wirral South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate of the cost of operating the Restart Scheme in each year of its expected operation.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Value of the Contracts for Restart (£2.5billion) is detailed on Contracts Finder. This covers the three-year referral period and service delivery. A review of the Restart Programme is being undertaken following the first full year of delivery. Any changes will be published on Contracts Finder in Autumn 2022.
The following Prime organisations were awarded Contracts to deliver the Restart Scheme.
G4S Facilities Management (UK) Ltd. |
MAXIMUS UK Services Limited |
Reed in Partnership |
Serco Group |
Jobs 22 Ltd |
Ingeus UK Ltd |
Fedcap Employment Limited |
Seetec Pluss Ltd |
The Restart contracts are accessible on Contracts Finder using the following link Restart Scheme - Contracts Finder. In relation to funding, under the Governments Transparency agenda, all spend data over £25,000 is published and can be found at GOV.UK. Spend is updated on a quarterly basis with the latest update published in March 2022.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of research by Swim England that suggests three in five primary school children will not be able to swim 25 metres by the 2025-26 academic year.
Answered by Will Quince
The department recognises that children have missed out on opportunities to learn to swim and be taught how to be safe in and around water due to COVID-19 restrictions as highlighted in the report published by Swim England.
To help address this, the department is working closely with Swim England and other swimming and water safety organisations to provide support to schools and pool operators to restart school swimming lessons, including comprehensive guidance, webinars, and direct advice.
Additionally, through the Opening Schools Facilities programme, the department is supporting schools with swimming pools to be able to open their facilities beyond their normal hours, to give young people more opportunities to learn to swim.
The department is currently procuring a national delivery partner for the next academic year, to allocate funding and offer advice and guidance to schools, including on how they can use their swimming pools and other facilities to provide an increase in the local offer of swimming and other physical activity and extracurricular sports.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the Plan for Jobs in supporting people into work.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is committed to supporting everyone who has been affected by the unprecedented impact of COVID-19 on the economy and the labour market. Throughout the pandemic the UK Government has provided historic levels of support to the economy – a total of over £370 billion. This includes key DWP programmes as part of the Plan for Jobs, such as Restart and Kickstart alongside other measures to boost work searches, skills, and apprenticeships. Our support was in addition to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (Furlough) and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme.
Our Plan for Jobs is complemented by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), which will help to level up and create opportunity across the UK. As part of Plan for Jobs in England over 162,000 jobs have been started through the Kickstart programme. Data for the financial years 2020/21 and 2021/22 shows that as of 27 March 2022, there was a total of 149,980 starts to a Sector Work Academy Programme (SWAP) nationally. We have also launched Way to Work - a concerted drive across the UK to help half a million currently out of work people into jobs by the end of June 2022.
Employment is growing in England – up 30,000 on the quarter and 310,000 on the year to stand at 27.510 million in Dec 2021-Feb 2022, according to ONS figures. Employment in England is up from a low in the pandemic of 27.186 million - though it is below its pre-COVID level, underlining the need for Way to Work to support more people into jobs.
We want everyone to be able to find a job, progress in work and thrive in the labour market, whoever they are and wherever they live.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she has had discussions with Cabinet colleagues on the potential merits of introducing a homes for refugees programme whereby UK residents are able to open their homes to refugees irrespective of their country of origin.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The existing Community Sponsorship Scheme provides the opportunity for friends and neighbours, charities and faith groups to play a direct role in supporting families resettled to the UK as they restart their lives here.
Further details on the Community Sponsorship Scheme can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/apply-for-full-community-sponsorship
There are currently no plans to establish a broader Homes for Refugees programme and it is not possible to undertake a cost comparison as suggested.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make a comparative estimate of the cost of (a) providing a homes for refugees scheme, whereby UK residents are able to open their homes to refugees irrespective of their country of origin, and (b) accommodating a person in a bridging hotel according to costs as of 10 May 2022.
Answered by Kevin Foster
The existing Community Sponsorship Scheme provides the opportunity for friends and neighbours, charities and faith groups to play a direct role in supporting families resettled to the UK as they restart their lives here.
Further details on the Community Sponsorship Scheme can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/apply-for-full-community-sponsorship
There are currently no plans to establish a broader Homes for Refugees programme and it is not possible to undertake a cost comparison as suggested.
Asked by: Bim Afolami (Conservative - Hitchin and Harpenden)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of the Government's Plan for Jobs on (a) Hitchin and Harpenden and (b) England.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is committed to supporting everyone who has been affected by the unprecedented impact of COVID-19 on the economy and the labour market. We want everyone to be able to find a job, progress in work and thrive in the labour market, whoever they are and wherever they live. To meet demand for Jobcentre’s services and to ensure that people looking for work receive the right support, DWP successfully recruited 13,500 new Work Coaches across the country.
Throughout the pandemic the UK Government has provided historic levels of support to the economy – a total of over £400 billion. This includes key DWP programmes as part of the Plan for Jobs, such as Restart and Kickstart alongside other measures to boost work searches, skills, and apprenticeships. Our support was in addition to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (Furlough) and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme.
Our Plan for Jobs will be complemented by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), which will help to level up and create opportunity across the UK. As part of Plan for Jobs in England 137,600 jobs have been started through the Kickstart programme – with 11,600 of these being in the East of England.
We have also launched Way to Work - a concerted drive across the UK to help half a million currently out of work people into jobs by the end of June 2022.
Data for the financial years 2020/21 and 2021/22 shows that as of 27th March 2022, there was a total of 149,980 starts to a Sector Work Academy Programme (SWAP) nationally.
The employment rate in Hitchin and Harpenden has grown in recent years. Data from the independent Office for National Statistics shows that the employment rate was 81.8% in Hitchin and Harpenden in the latest data (covering Jan 2021-Dec 2021) compared to 75.8% before the pandemic (January 2019-December 2019).
Employment is growing in England – up 30,000 on the quarter and 310,000 on the year to stand at 27.510 million in Dec 2021-Feb 2022, according to ONS figures. Employment in England is up from a low in the pandemic of 27.186 million - though it is below its pre-COVID level, underlining the need for Way to Work to support more people into jobs.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will hold discussions with Northern Ireland Screen and other producers on support for the film industry in the devolved Administrations.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
My department continues to work closely with its Arm’s Length Body, the British Film Institute (BFI), and the Devolved Administrations to ensure a wide range of funding and initiatives are available to support the film industry in all UK Nations. This includes the UK-wide screen sector tax reliefs, and the UK Global Screen Fund which will invest nearly £30 million in the international growth of independent screen companies across the UK. In addition, the government’s £500 million Film and TV Production Restart Scheme has supported over 1,100 productions around the UK, representing over £2.9 billion of production budgets with over 95,000 jobs supported.
Examples of government support that have been provided to the Northern Irish film industry include the National Lottery-supported talent development programme BFI NETWORK. Northern Ireland Screen also receives Lottery funding from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, which it has used to prioritise script development and short films, and receives funding for the Irish Language Broadcast Fund and Ulster Scots Broadcast Fund via the BFI. Furthermore, the BFI will continue to consult colleagues from Northern Ireland Screen as part of the UK Film Skills Review, alongside those from other key bodies in the Devolved Administrations.
The British Film Commission (BFC), a national body predominantly funded by DCMS, also supports and promotes UK-wide film and high-end television production, including in all Devolved Administrations, and works in close partnership with the national and regional screen agencies.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - Wolverhampton South West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to reduce unemployment rates across the West Midlands.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Throughout the pandemic, the UK Government has provided over £400 billion to support the economy, including funding for our Plan for Jobs. The Kickstart Scheme has enabled young people to move into employment, with many of these securing permanent jobs. Alongside this, the Restart Scheme offers a fresh start to those who have been unemployed for over 9 months. The scheme breaks down employment barriers that could potentially prevent jobseekers from finding work. In addition, to support those who may need extra help, we are delivering the following employability programmes; Job Entry Targeted Support, Intensive Personalised Employment Support and Work & Health Programme.
Way to Work is a campaign to help half a million job ready claimants into work by the end of June 2022. We are building on the success of Kickstart to work closely with employers and aim to move claimants into work quicker; through recruitment days, job fairs and work trials. We will be stepping up our expectations of claimants and taking a robust approach to ensure agreements made through the Claimant Commitments are adhered to.
In addition, our jobcentre teams are helping employers find the right people for their vacancies, particularly through the Sector-based Work Academy Programme (SWAP), Skills Bootcamps, Apprenticeships and Traineeships. For example, the local team are working with the West Midlands Mayoral Authority to help equip people with the skills needed to fill vacancies for the upcoming Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Across the West Midlands, Jobcentres work collaboratively with the National Career Service (NCS) and Further Education Colleges to provide careers information, advice, and guidance so that jobseekers can make informed decisions on learning, training, and work. Collaborating with partners such as the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), the seven West Midlands Local Authorities, Local Enterprise Partnerships and local Chambers of Commerce, to progress our strategic aims to increase diversity in the workplace, promote Disability Confident to reduce the disability gap in the workplace and increase skills provision in those sectors that are experiencing labour shortages.