Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people undertook an unpaid work placement in his 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 Treasury hosts internships which are paid. There were no unpaid work placements over 2 weeks.

The Treasury participates in the formal civil service wide work experience scheme for school and college students. This is part of the government’s social mobility strategy. Work experience of 2 weeks or less is unpaid but there are costs to participating departments i.e. £1000-2000 per student. These costs support activities for the students on career choices, travel expenses and accommodation where the work-experience scheme is residential. The numbers of students hosted from the central scheme are below:

Informal work- experience is also permitted of less than 2 weeks for young people under the age of 22. These placements are unpaid and numbers are not collated centrally.