Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people have secured employment through the Kickstart scheme to date.

The aim of the Kickstart Scheme is to fund the direct creation of additional jobs for young people at risk of long-term unemployment. Kickstart provides young people with an opportunity to build their skills and confidence in the work place and gain experience that will improve their chances of finding long-term, sustainable work.

As of the 27 May 2021, over 29,000 young people have started jobs created by the Kickstart Scheme.

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.