Andrew Stunell (Hazel Grove, Liberal Democrat)

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many Jobcentre Plus staff were employed in each region in each of the last five years.

Jim Knight (Minister of State (the South West), Regional Affairs; South Dorset, Labour)

The administration of Jobcentre Plus is the responsibility of the acting chief executive, Mel Groves. I have asked him to provide the hon. Member with the information requested.

Letter from Mel Groves:

The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking how many Jobcentre Plus staff were employed in each region in each of the last five years. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Acting Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.

A regional breakdown for the period before 2007/08 is not available. For that period therefore, we are providing an overall Jobcentre Plus staffing figure for each year as shown below:

For 2007/08 and 2008/09, the information at regional/country level is in the table below. The levels of Jobcentre Plus staff deployed across regions/countries will vary depending on how specific areas of work are managed. For instance, the Contact Centre Directorate operates a virtual network and therefore aligning their work to geographic boundaries would be misleading. Wales has three large contact centres handling calls as part of the virtual network.

On the same principle, the network of Benefit Delivery Centres can, and does, move work around the country on a weekly basis to maximise speed of claim processing. Although Benefit Delivery Centres are in the main linked to regions/countries, such work movement and some centralised functions mean there is not a clear distinction. For example, applications for National Insurance numbers are processed in two centres, Glasgow and Isle of Wight, so staff numbers will be included in the Government Office Region for Scotland and South East respectively.