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Jobcentre Plus

Answer

The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, Lesley Strathie. She will write to the hon. Member.Letter from Lesley Strathie, dated 19 December 2005:"The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question concerning how many claimants live more than 5 miles away from an integrated Jobcentre Plus customer facing office. This falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.""We do not hold information on the distance our customers have to travel to their nearest Jobcentre Plus office.""In planning the new network of Jobcentre Plus offices, local managers take into account many factors including population spread, availability and cost of public transport, and the distance between offices. We aim to locate our new offices where there are good transport links.""Inevitably as the office network changes, there will be some customers who will find they will have to travel further. Jobcentre Plus is actively working with local partners to ensure that these hard to reach communities have access to services. In many locations, particularly rural locations, we are often able to provide outreach facilities, ensuring access to job vacancies, advice and information through third party premises.""In practice this means that with our new network, very few of our customers would have to travel more than 5 miles to access Jobcentre Plus services, other than in the most remote rural areas. Customers are now using our offices differently. More of our face-to-face customer contact is on an appointment basis and information on job vacancies is readily available by telephone and Internet. This enables staff in our offices to focus on those customers in greatest need of support.""I hope this is helpful."

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

34250; 440 c2455W

Session

2005-06

Subjects

Jobcentres Location Offices Travel

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk