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Written question asked by Lord Kinnock (Labour) on Monday, 1 February 2016, in the House of Lords. It was due for an answer on Monday, 15 February 2016. It was answered by Lord Freud (Conservative) on Monday, 15 February 2016 on behalf of the Department for Work and Pensions.

EU Globalisation Fund

Question

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what applications for support have been submitted to the EU Globalisation Adjustment Fund since its inception; whether they intend to submit an application for support in order to support workers made redundant from the steel industry in the last year; and if not, why not.

Answer

The European Globalisation Fund (EGF) provides a financial contribution for active labour market measures, aimed at reintegrating those made or at risk of being made redundant in the labour market.

Member States are responsible in the first instance for tackling trade adjustment redundancies - the fund is therefore designed to add to national, regional and local assistance.

The UK already offers a broad range of personalised support to workers made redundant through its Rapid Response Service and Jobcentre Plus, which could not be duplicated or substituted by EGF.

The Rapid Response Service and the Jobcentre Plus Core Offer are effective reintegration tools which represent good value for money and are our primary and most helpful means of response to large redundancies.

For this reason, the UK Government has never applied to the EGF.

In addition to the aforementioned support, in the case of the steel industry, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has also announced packages of support worth up to £80 million for SSI in Redcar and up to £9 million for TATA Steel in Scunthorpe.

Only if more support is necessary other suitable sources of support will be considered.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
HL5695
Session
2015-16
Subjects
Iron and steel Manufacturing industries Redundancy EU Globalisation Fund
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk