Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to figure 7 on page 24 of the National Audit Office's report, Progress on the government estate strategy (HC 1131), published on 25 April 2017, what the evidential basis is for the number of jobs created.

Projects delivered under the One Public Estate programme deliver a range of benefits, including the creation of jobs. To attribute a benefit to the programme, an OPE partnership must submit evidence that a benefit has been delivered. For example, the evidence base for the creation of jobs can include:

1) an economic impact assessment supporting a planning application

2) a construction plan

3) an extract from the tender for a building contract

This is not an exhaustive list of suitable evidence. One Public Estate works with OPE partnerships to use the most suitable means of determining jobs created, dependent on the nature of individual projects.