The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the acting chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, 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 staff were recruited and made redundant by Jobcentre Plus in each region in January and February 2009. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.
In response to recent economic events Jobcentre Plus is deploying extra resources:
Some 4,000 more staff than in our original Spending Review plans have been recruited Nov 2008-Feb 2009. All of this new resource will be applied to customer-facing services.
In line with the recent Pre-Budget Report, Jobcentre Plus will be in a position to deploy some 6,000 additional staff by end of 2009/10 than was originally planned.
The total number of people joining Jobcentre Plus and the number of people leaving Jobcentre Plus under Early Release arrangements in each region for January and February 2009 are in the attached tables. Within the period referred to, Jobcentre Plus did not make any member of staff compulsorily redundant.
Region January 2009 February 2009 East Midlands 171 63 East of England 70 40 London 74 40 North East 36 23 North West 132 121 Scotland 109 111 South East 140 73 South West 104 37 Wales 134 66 West Midlands 65 56 Yorkshire and the Humber 90 63 Total 1,125 693 Note: The data reflects the number of recruits accounted for in the Department’s extract from the payroll.
Region January 2009 February 2009 East of England 0 1 North West 0 1 Scotland 3 3 South West 0 4 Wales 8 0 Yorkshire and the Humber 1 0 Total 12 9 Note: No one was made compulsorily redundant and these leavers were as a result of office closures, mismatches in locations and staffing requirements and other unavoidable circumstances.