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Jobcentre Plus: Manpower

Answer

The administration of Jobcentre Plus is the responsibility of the acting chief executive, Mel Groves. I have asked him to provide the hon. Member with the information requested.Letter from Mel Groves:"The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking how many Jobcentre Plus staff were employed in each region in each of the last five years. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.""A regional breakdown for the period before 2007/08 is not available. For that period therefore, we are providing an overall Jobcentre Plus staffing figure for each year as shown below:"

Jobcentre Plus staffing
	Full-time equivalent
2004/05	74,474
2005/06	71,221
2006/07	67,946

"For 2007/08 and 2008/09, the information at regional/country level is in the table below. The levels of Jobcentre Plus staff deployed across regions/countries will vary depending on how specific areas of work are managed. For instance, the Contact Centre Directorate operates a virtual network and therefore aligning their work to geographic boundaries would be misleading. Wales has three large contact centres handling calls as part of the virtual network.""On the same principle, the network of Benefit Delivery Centres can, and does, move work around the country on a weekly basis to maximise speed of claim processing. Although Benefit Delivery Centres are in the main linked to regions/countries, such work movement and some centralised functions mean there is not a clear distinction. For example, applications for National Insurance numbers are processed in two centres, Glasgow and Isle of Wight, so staff numbers will be included in the Government Office Region for Scotland and South East respectively."

Jobcentre Plus staffing
Full-time equivalent
Region/country	2007/08	2008/09
East Midlands	4,342	4,801
East of England	4,202	4,601
London	7,407	7,560
North East	4,313	4,333
North West	10,661	10,672
Scotland	7,776	8,256
South East	5,118	5,555
South West	4,275	4,602
Wales	4,562	4,908
West Midlands	6,391	6,781
Yorkshire and the Humber	7,360	7,413
Total	66,407	69,482
Notes:
1. Headcount figures are quoted in full-time equivalents using the Office for National Statistics definitions for counting headcount and details the position at March for each of the last five years.
2. The figures have been rounded to whole numbers.
Source:
The data provided is taken from Dataview, an electronic extract drawn from payroll.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

498 c823-4W; 291602

Session

2008-09

Subjects

Jobcentres Jobcentre Plus Staff

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

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