Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 15
15
Rejected
Department avoids publishing granular jobcentre performance data due to practical challenges.
Recommendation
We asked the Department why it had not published performance data at jobcentre level as we had requested. The Department said that the challenge of presenting data at jobcentre level was that the geography of a jobcentre could be relatively small and the position could be distorted by someone leaving a jobcentre or a major employer suddenly going out of business. It argued that the danger in giving data for some 640 jobcentres was that it would probably have to provide a commentary to explain the particular circumstances of each jobcentre, and that a lot of resources would go into doing that. The Department also said that the level of assurance over the quality of the data diminished when one went down to jobcentre level so its preference was to report data that had been aggregated.22 20 Committee of Public Accounts, Jobcentres, Thirty-Sixth Report of Session 2024–25, HC 823, 2 July 2025, p 5 and 14 21 Qq 2-3; DWP, Get Britain Working: Labour Market Insights, 30 October 2025 22 Q 15 11 2 Customer service, cyber security and legacy IT Introduction
Government Response Summary
The government disagrees, stating the right level to monitor performance is at a district and local authority level, citing potential over-interpretation of short-term fluctuations at the jobcentre level. It is developing its quarterly Labour Market Insights and welcomes feedback.
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
3.1 The government disagrees with the Committee’s recommendation. 3.2 The department has provided the Committee with jobcentre level data on work coach numbers in the Committee members’ constituencies, but the department’s view remains that the right level to monitor performance is at a district and local authority level. This is because jobcentres work collectively across their geographies, and there is a danger of over interpretation of short-term fluctuations at a more local level. The into-work rates may, for example, fluctuate due to the arrival of a new employer or new job opportunities, so the figures could say more about changes in the local labour market than about jobcentre performance. 3.3 The department has recently started publishing its quarterly Get Britain Working Labour Market Insights. This allows stakeholders to review progress of their local jobcentre district and jobcentres within the local authority area on into-work rates. The department will be developing this publication and would be happy to take feedback from the Committee over the coming quarters as this data evolves.