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, (b) advertised and (c) started by young people by (i) nation (ii) region and (iii) sector, and if she will make a statement.

As of the 9^th November, over 306,000 jobs have been approved for funding and over 100,000 young people have started a Kickstart job. Over 217,000 jobs have been advertised and made available for young people to apply to through the scheme

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 9^th November and these figures have been rounded according to departmental standards.

Jobs made available and starts quoted here include some unfunded Kickstart jobs. Over time, some previously approved jobs have been removed where the employer chose not to follow up the application. Included in the Great Britain total are a small number of jobs made available (less than 100 in total) that have an unrecorded job location. Data on approved jobs is taken from a snapshot of the Kickstart system at a point in time. This figure can be affected by retrospective changes resulting from applications being rescinded.

The number of approved jobs is defined as the number of jobs associated with approved applications recorded on the Kickstart application system on the date above. This total excludes approved jobs that have been withdrawn from the Kickstart Scheme by agreement with employers and gateways.

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.

Table 1- Kickstart jobs made available and started by location.

Table 2- Kickstart jobs made available and started by sector.