Welfare Reform Bill

I agree that the role of Jobcentre Plus should be to help with that process, but I will write specifically to the noble Baroness. Perhaps she could exchange with me some of the detail that prompted her inquiry; I shall certainly take it up. I understand the sentiment behind the amendment and I would like to assure noble Lords that the department examines the impact of any new programme before implementing it. Projects like "work for your benefit" also go through a gated review process where operational readiness must be clearly demonstrated before authority to implement the pilots is given. In addition, both Houses of Parliament will have an opportunity to quiz Ministers about operational readiness as we lay regulations for the "work for your benefit" pilots. The piloting regulations operate under the affirmative procedure and will therefore be debated in full. Evaluation of the pilots will give us a further opportunity to judge their operational impact and inform decisions on whether we roll the programme out nationally as well as how it can be done most efficiently. However, I accept that changes in the economy have placed additional pressure on Jobcentre Plus and that is why we announced in the Budget an extra £1.7 billion to help ensure that Jobcentre Plus as well as contracted providers have the resources they need to cope with the additional workload, which is in addition to the £1.3 billion in the Pre-Budget Report. To recap, this means that Jobcentre Plus will be able to recruit up to 10,000 more staff on top of the 6,000 new staff already announced in the Pre-Budget Report. These are significant increases in resources and as such I believe that Jobcentre Plus will be well placed to deal with the current period of rising unemployment. It is able to manage current volumes and has put in place plans to function effectively if numbers increase further across all benefits. Bearing this in mind, ample safeguards are in place to ensure that Jobcentre Plus is ready for these changes, and we must remember that as an organisation, it has shown an enviable capacity for implementing change successfully, and there is no reason to believe that that will change. I hope that I have provided some assurance to noble Lords. I am conscious that the second part of our debate in this area on the adequacy of training and monitoring is important and I hope it will follow shortly.