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Jobcentre Plus

Answer

The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, Lesley Strathie. I have asked her to provide the hon. Member with the information requested.Letter from Leslie Strathie:"The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking which Jobcentre Plus Offices were closed in each of the last four years, and in each case whether prior to closure the office was open full-time or part-time. This is something, which falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus.""I enclose a list of the offices that were closed and have indicated in each case whether the office was open full-time or part-time prior to closure. I have placed a copy in the House of Commons Library.""Firstly, as part of the rollout of the new Jobcentre Plus network we have rationalised our estate. We inherited around 1500 offices from the former Employment Service and Benefits Agency, several of which were unsuitable for the new processes, or were in the wrong place or in a poor state of repair. Often, the former agencies had offices situated at either end of the High Street and, in some instances, neither was suitable for conversion to Jobcentre Plus so we closed one or both of them. In each District we undertook detailed service delivery planning exercises in consultation with local stakeholders, identifying the sites which we would convert to the new standard and those, which needed to close. We also explained how, particularly in more rural locations, we would offer outreach services (““flexible service delivery””).""Secondly, as a result of our programme to centralise benefit processing we have identified sites which will no longer be viable once processing work has been taken away from them.""Thirdly, we have been looking very closely at the need for public-facing sites in a number of locations. The increased availability of new channels means that Jobcentre Plus customers can access services directly by telephone or Internet rather than needing to call into one of our offices. Reducing expenditure on our office network is part of our wider strategy for focusing resources more effectively on frontline advisory services to help our customers move into work.""The list of closures should also be set against the 837 offices that we have rolled out to date under our restructuring programme, plus over 150 locations where we have installed flexible service delivery arrangements.""I would emphasise that the closure of any of our offices involves consultation with local stakeholders, including MPs, and putting in place suitable alternative arrangements for delivering services to our customers.""I hope this is helpful."

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

102424; 454 c529-30W;454 c531-2W

Session

2006-07

Related items

Deposited Paper DEP 06/2357
Tuesday, 5 December 2006
Deposited papers
House of Commons

Subjects

Closures Jobcentres Jobcentre Plus

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk