Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent steps his Department has taken to help reduce unemployment in the context of trends in the level of unemployment in the last three months published in the Office for National Statistics statistical bulletin entitled Labour market overview, UK: November 2022.

As recommended by the Office for National Statistics, the Government does not compare overlapping quarters. For the period July to September 2022 the unemployment rate was 3.6%, 0.2 percentage points lower than the previous quarter.

To reduce unemployment, our comprehensive labour market offer gives claimants the best possible chance to move into work, and we’re investing £900 million each year of this Spending Review period, in our work coaches to support this.