Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many jobs included within the Kickstart scheme have been (a) approved, (b) advertised and (c) started by (i) county, (ii) region and (iii) nation.

We are pleased to say that, as of the 31^st August, over 63,000 young people have started Kickstart jobs. Over 181,000 jobs have been made available for young people to apply for through the Kickstart Scheme with over 280,000 jobs approved for funding by the Scheme.

We are unable at present to provide data on the number of approved jobs by location, as at that stage in the process we do not hold information about the exact location of a job, only the head office of the employer.

Below are tables listing the number of Kickstart jobs which have been made available and started by young people to date by geographical area of Great Britain and work sector. The figures used are correct as of the 31^st August and these figures have been rounded according to departmental standards.

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.