Written question asked by James Clappison (Conservative) on Tuesday, 26 March 2002, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 10 May 2002. It was answered by Nicholas Brown (Labour) on Friday, 10 May 2002 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Dept for Work and Pensions

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much has been (a) budgeted and (b) spent on the Employment Zone scheme in each year since its introduction; and how much of the allocation in each year went into personal job accounts. - Including figures.

Answer: Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much has been (a) budgeted and (b) spent on the Employment Zone scheme in each year since its introduction; and how much of the allocation in each year went into personal job accounts. [47929] Mr. Nicholas Brown: The Department does not receive information from contractors on the specific amounts spent on personal job accounts. This is because funding for the personal job account is drawn from the overall payments made to the contractors. Expenditure on personal job accounts by contractors varies according to the needs of each participant. In the financial year April 2000-March 2001, the Employment Zone budget was £56,374,000 and the spend was £71,950,885. For the financial year April 2001-March 2002 the budget was £87,026,000. Forecast expenditure will be published in the Departmental Report in May. Reasons for the differences between the spend on Employment Zones and budget include better than anticipated performance by Zone contractors and more participants entering the programme earlier than forecast. The budget for 2001-02 includes funding for those who joined Employment Zones during the year and have not yet completed Steps 1 and 2.

Secondary information