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Work Programme

I was interested, when I read that report, to read the narrative that went with it, which said that the Social Market Foundation had been one of the authors of the Work programme, through its research work. At the time I was not even aware that it had done any. I have great respect for the Social Market Foundation as an organisation, but on this occasion it is just plain wrong. It was saying that somehow we should provide more money to a group of organisations, which, four months previously, had signed contracts for the programme. Those are serious international organisations, which will have looked hard at the Work programme, what it needs to achieve, and whether they would get a return. They did that in April, and they were signing contracts as late as early June. I hope that the hon. Gentleman is not trying to tell me that, come August, the world had changed so much that those decisions were invalid.