Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, from what part of his Department's budget the support package for Redcar steelworkers will be funded.

The support package will be funded through central budgets.

As part of this, we have agreed over £40 million of support following proposals put forward by the Task Force chaired by Amanda Skelton, including:

• £2.42 safety net fund, to support workers with short-term financial challenges;
• £2.65m skills funding to plug any gaps in skills provision not available via the Further Education Offer;
• £1.7m to help ensure that the fifty apprentices who were with SSI can continue their apprenticeships with alternative employers;
• £16.5m Jobs and Skills Fund to help local firms employ former SSI workers or their spouses in full-time or part-time jobs for a minimum of three years;
• £16m support for firms in the SSI supply chain and wider Tees Valley impacted by the Redcar steelworks closure, to safeguard jobs, provide the stimulus to create new posts and provide expert assistance to help them expand their business; and
• £750,000 to fund advice and grants to start up a new business.

All of the requests for spend in 2015/16 have been transferred from Government to the SSI Task Force, which is beginning to implement its planned programme of interventions. This is on top of the up to £3m that has been made available to four Further Education colleges in the region to support re-training activity, and redundancy and final salary payments of former SSI employees.