Government Response to the Work and Pensions Select Committee Report into the European Social Fund

This is the government's response, published 28 June 2018.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The government welcomes the committee's report on the European Social Fund and, rather than formally accepting or rejecting individual recommendations, says it is considering how to design a successor under the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

• On an arm's length body, the government "notes" the recommendation but says new such bodies should be "set up as a last resort", and it is "considering a number of ways" to make the fund cheap to administer.
• On a separate employment support fund, it does not commit, but says it "is considering how the structure of a replacement ESF can address these criticisms" of siloed funding.
• On funding length, it says the duration of replacement funds "will be determined at the Spending Review". On bureaucracy, stripping it back is "an absolute priority" in designing any new fund.
• It commits to a public consultation on the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which it "intend[s]" to hold "later in the year".

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