Local Employment Partnership Awards 2009 Mr. Harper To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 5 May 2009, Official Report, column 123W, on local employment partnerships, what the final cost was of the Local Employment Partnership Awards 2009; and how much (a) each of the 11 local award ceremonies and (b) the grand final cost. Jim Knight The Local Employment Partnerships (LEPs) Awards 2009 are an integral part of our strategy to support the delivery of LEPs across Great Britain. We want more employers to work through LEPs so that unemployed people have a better chance to get back to work. The Awards have been established to highlight the major benefits that LEP participation has brought to employers and partners and to celebrate the success of individual employees who have found sustainable work through the programme. An overall budget of £663,000 was allocated to support this work and we have delivered the events under budget due to cost savings negotiated with suppliers. Final figures for the cost of each event are listed in the following table: ------------------------------------------------ |LEP awards |Event costs (£)| ------------------------------------------------ |Scotland Award |55,481.13 | ------------------------------------------------ |North East Award |51,757.25 | ------------------------------------------------ |North West Award |53,970.56 | ------------------------------------------------ |Yorkshire and the Humber Award|55,048.47 | ------------------------------------------------ |Wales Award |53,480.66 | ------------------------------------------------ |West Midlands Award |58,039.11 | ------------------------------------------------ |East Midlands Award |50,878.04 | ------------------------------------------------ |East of England Award |52,016.32 | ------------------------------------------------ |South East Award |55,249.40 | ------------------------------------------------ |London Award |54,988.52 | ------------------------------------------------ |South West Award |51,465.55 | ------------------------------------------------ |National Award |39,441.82 | ------------------------------------------------ |Total costs |631,816.83 | ------------------------------------------------