Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of the Government's Plan for Jobs on (a) Hitchin and Harpenden and (b) England.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is committed to supporting everyone who has been affected by the unprecedented impact of COVID-19 on the economy and the labour market. We want everyone to be able to find a job, progress in work and thrive in the labour market, whoever they are and wherever they live. To meet demand for Jobcentre’s services and to ensure that people looking for work receive the right support, DWP successfully recruited 13,500 new Work Coaches across the country.

Throughout the pandemic the UK Government has provided historic levels of support to the economy – a total of over £400 billion. This includes key DWP programmes as part of the Plan for Jobs, such as Restart and Kickstart alongside other measures to boost work searches, skills, and apprenticeships. Our support was in addition to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (Furlough) and the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme.

Our Plan for Jobs will be complemented by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), which will help to level up and create opportunity across the UK. As part of Plan for Jobs in England 137,600 jobs have been started through the Kickstart programme – with 11,600 of these being in the East of England.

We have also launched Way to Work - a concerted drive across the UK to help half a million currently out of work people into jobs by the end of June 2022.

Data for the financial years 2020/21 and 2021/22 shows that as of 27^th March 2022, there was a total of 149,980 starts to a Sector Work Academy Programme (SWAP) nationally.

The employment rate in Hitchin and Harpenden has grown in recent years. Data from the independent Office for National Statistics shows that the employment rate was 81.8% in Hitchin and Harpenden in the latest data (covering Jan 2021-Dec 2021) compared to 75.8% before the pandemic (January 2019-December 2019).

Employment is growing in England – up 30,000 on the quarter and 310,000 on the year to stand at 27.510 million in Dec 2021-Feb 2022, according to ONS figures. Employment in England is up from a low in the pandemic of 27.186 million - though it is below its pre-COVID level, underlining the need for Way to Work to support more people into jobs.