Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Kickstart scheme placements have been (a) approved and (b) started in (i) Luton North constituency, (ii) Luton and (iii) Bedfordshire.

Delivering the Kickstart Scheme at pace has led to a limited data set which makes it harder to accurately present a snapshot of a smaller geographical area.

We are continuing to develop our data, which may help in sharing local authority level information in due course.

We are able to provide, however, that in the ONS defined region of East of England (which includes Bedfordshire), as of 6 May 2021 around 8,240 jobs had been made available for young people to apply for and around 1,320 jobs started by young people on the Kickstart Scheme.

Although care is taken when processing and analysing Kickstart applications, referrals and starts, the data collected might be subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system which has been developed quickly. The management information presented here has not been subjected to the usual standard of quality assurance associated with official statistics, but is provided in the interests of transparency. Work is ongoing to improve the quality of information available for the programme.