Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many people have undertaken unpaid work periods in his Department since 2016; and how many of those people were not subsequently offered a full-time work position.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) participates in centrally run and unpaid work placement schemes designed to promote social mobility and offer the opportunity to work shadow/gain work experience in the Civil Service.

The schemes in question on which we can report numbers are:

• The Early Diversity Internship Programme, a work shadowing scheme offered to years 1-2 undergraduates, for a week at Easter
• Civil Service Work Experience, which is for school students between the ages of 15 and 18. Placements are for less than 1 month based on school holidays.
• Movement to Work. As part of a national programme, the Civil Service offers work experience placements of between 4-8 weeks duration with primary focus on young unemployed 18 -24 year olds who are not in education, employment or training (NEET).

Since the formation of BEIS in July 2016, we have had 1 Movement to Work placement, 10 EDIP students and 13 Civil Service Work Experience placements.

The route for applying for full-time work positions would be through fair and open competition for advertised roles. Based on departmental data, none of those who took part in these placements subsequently succeeded in applying for full-time work positions in BEIS.