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 potential merits of publishing the number of Kickstart Scheme applications that have been rejected by region.

A regional breakdown of applications to the Kickstart Scheme is not currently held by the Department for Work and Pensions. This is because applications at the approval stage of Kickstart only provide the registered address of the applying organisation (employer or Gateway) and so are not reflective of where the jobs would be based if approved. Employers and Gateway organisations can make multiple applications to the scheme. And some employers within Gateway application may be rejected while others are approved. This data is therefore of limited use for analytical and planning purposes. For these reasons, information is not currently produced on application outcomes by region.