Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people undertook an unpaid work placement in her Department in each of the last five years for which figures are available; and how many such placements lasted for longer than one month.

The Department offers work placements through our recently launched Return to Work Programme to provide a bridge back to work for individuals. We also take part in the Civil Service Summer Diversity Internship scheme. Individuals participating on both these schemes are paid whilst they are working in the Department.

The Department provides a work experience programme for 15 - 18 year olds from diverse backgrounds. This is a cross Civil Service scheme working with Local Education Authorities and aimed at giving individuals practical experience of life in the Civil Service for a week. This shadowing experience is unpaid. We do not centrally hold the information on the number of people who undertook this unpaid shadowing opportunity; it could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.