[holding answer 18 June 2009]: 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 Ruth Owen:
The Secretary of State has asked Mel Groves to reply to your question asking how many benefit offices have been open in each year since 1998; and how many offices scheduled for closure in each such year had the closure suspended. This is something which falls within the responsibilities delegated to Mel Groves as Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus. As Mel Groves is currently on annual leave, I am replying in his absence.
Information is only available on Jobcentre Plus offices since April 2002, when Jobcentre Plus was created by the merger of the former Employment Service and Benefits Agency. I have attached a table at Annex 1 of the available information.
Jobcentre Plus inherited around 1,500 offices from the merger of the Benefits Agency and the Employment Service in 2002. We have modernised our Jobcentre network to improve customer service, rationalising our estate to provide excellent high street coverage and a single, integrated customer facing office, at the same time reducing cost to the tax payer. We remain the largest office network in Government with 741 modern Jobcentres. This high street presence is supported by 31 modern, industry standard, contact centres and 79 main benefit processing centres.
Jobcentres continue to provide an essential service—especially to those customers most in need of tailored help. However, the great majority of our services (in common with most large, modern organisations) are now also delivered through the telephone and internet. For example, to give customers more convenient access we have around half a million vacancies on-line at any time (our website receives close to one million job searches every working day), and new claims to benefit are predominantly taken by telephone with some taken on-line.
Wherever we have considered the closure of a public facing office we have undertaken a full consultation with local stakeholders, including MPs. When finalising our Service Delivery Plans, our District Managers take account of this consultation and may, in the light of that consultation, decide not to pursue closure. We do not retain records of offices that remain open following a consultation exercise, but, in the light of the current economic conditions and welfare reform changes planned for the next two to three years a decision was taken in November 2008 to suspend the closure of 25 Jobcentres which were being considered for closure. Three small offices in London, where closure had been previously announced, subsequently closed this year. There will be no new Jobcentre closures while the current economic conditions exist.
Annex 1
January Region Currently 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 East of England 57 57 66 67 72 84 85 90 90 East Midlands 53 53 54 56 69 71 75 83 83 London 74 77 80 90 114 121 132 138 139 North East 45 45 47 49 53 60 64 65 65 North West 97 97 104 112 129 139 153 160 160 Scotland 99 99 100 103 125 139 150 153 153 South East 74 74 77 82 97 107 121 123 123 South West 57 57 79 83 91 102 114 118 118 Wales 63 63 63 64 87 95 108 111 111 West Midlands 63 63 67 79 98 105 108 115 116 Yorkshire and the Humber 59 59 60 61 68 79 87 88 88 Totals of all regions 741 744 797 846 1,003 1,102 1,197 1,244 1,246 1 Prior to implementing our network of Benefit Delivery Centres, from April 2006, many sites delivered both customer facing and benefit processing services. This table reflects the rationalisation of the former network of Employment Service and Benefit Agency offices right through to the current network where all offices are integrated Job Centre offices.