Looking for work? Click here for a FREE TICKET to Harlow Job's Fair

Some good news for Harlow on jobs. Under the Conservative-led Government, we have seen falling unemployment in Harlow in every single month this year. Over 500 new jobs have come back to our town. This is fantastic news and we should be proud of it. The BBC have also said Harlow has the fastest business growth - not just in England, but across the whole country.

To build on this success, I am organising a Job's Fair at the Leisure Zone, this autumn -with the help of many volunteers including Cllr Janice Elliott, Harlow Chamber of Commerce, our local Harlow Jobcentre, Harlow College, and Olympic torch-bearer Mike Jackson. 

The aim is to help local people who are looking for a job, to meet companies with vacancies. Entry is FREE, and there will also be FREE job-training seminars, such as CV workshops.

This week I have written to over 700 Harlow firms, inviting them to come to recruit new staff at the event. It will be FREE for them to hold a stall. Employment Minister Chris Grayling has also said he hopes to be able to attend.

Attendees and exhibitors alike can sign-up online at www.harlowjobsfair.eventbright.com.

by Robert Halfon MP - Working Hard for Harlow.

UPDATE: getting to grips with immigration

UK net migration since 1991.

In the 1990s, net immigration into Britain was in the tens of thousands. But under Labour, it rocketed and kept rising.

In towns like Harlow, this led to widespread concern and public anxiety about immigration. What happened in the Labour years is now well-known. In the boom decade, the number of people employed in the UK economy increased by 2.9 million. But 1.6 million of the jobs were taken by foreign workers. That is why many of our young people face unemployment today.

I am clear about this: The Government MUST make immigration work for ordinary British people. That is why I welcome what Ministers are doing, to get to grips with Labour's chaos. Strong action is now being taken to sort out the mess across the whole immigration system.

This Conservative-led Government is:

• Capping economic migration from parts of Europe, and the rest of the world. 
• Reforming student visas.
• Shutting bogus colleges. 
• Bringing in a Border Police Force.
• Introducing a tough English Language test.

In time, this action will reduce net immigration down to the lower levels of the 1990s, and also help to confront the horror of forced marriage.

This is essential. But we must do more than that. Immigration must also be positive: about attracting the small number of top-class people who will benefit Britain, people who help boost growth and jobs in towns like Harlow. We need top of the range professionals, surgeons, investors, footballers, technical specialists, entrepreneurs and exceptional artists and scientists. That is the kind of immigration system that I want to see.

by Robert Halfon MP - Working Hard for Harlow.

Work and Pensions Department spent £115 million going to conferences over ten years

Ever wondered why the country is nearly bankrupt? Well, I have tabled Parliamentary questions to almost every Government Department asking how much money they had spent going to conferences, between the years 2000-2010.

Most Departments have replied to me saying that the "information can be supplied only at disproportionate cost". Well this is not good enough, and I have followed up these non-answers to my legitimate question, with Freedom of Information (FoI) Requests. I hope I will get proper responses over the next few weeks.

However, to its credit, the Department for Work and Pensions, did give me a proper reply, which you might like to see below:

Departmental Conferences

Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of
7 July 2010 : Column 323W
expenditure by his Department and its predecessors on (a) organising and (b) attending conferences in each year since 1997. [5938]

Chris Grayling: The Department for Work and Pensions was formed in June 2001 from the Department of Social Security (DSS), the Employment Service (ES) and some parts of the Department for Education and Employment (DFEE) and no information is available before that time.

The Department does not hold a central record of the total cost of organising and attending conferences. However, identifiable expenditure for management conferences and external meetings are provided in the following table:

	£ million
2001-02	6.705
2002-03	19.729
2003-04	12.284
2004-05	10.738
2005-06	10.640
2006-07	11.533
2007-08	11.532
2008-09	16.273
2009-10(1)	15.636
(1) The accounts for 2009-10 have not been finalised therefore are subject to change.

These figures do not include expenditure incurred by the non-departmental public bodies:

Health and Safety Executive; or

Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, since its inception in 2008-09

That means that this Department spent £115 million on going to conferences, an incredible waste of taxpayer's money.

Yesterday, in the House of Commons, I urged the Leader of the Commons, Sir George Young to have a debate on Government waste:

Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con): Has the Leader of the House seen early-day motion 454 on the cost of Government conferences?

[That this House notes that the Department for Work and Pensions spent £115 million on management conferences and external meetings between 2000 and 2010; further notes that most departments have refused to supply similar figures in answer to written questions, arguing that statistics on conferences are not collated centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost; believes that the British public have a fundamental right to know how their taxes are spent by Government departments, and that Freedom of Information requests are being sent to every department which has refused to answer; and finally notes that the £115 million spent by the Department for Work and Pensions under the previous administration on management conferences and external meetings appears t o be a gross waste of taxpayer s ’ money, given that the public debt increased to over £900 billion in early 2010.]

May we have an urgent debate on Government waste, given that the Department for Work and Pensions revealed to me in a written answer that it spent £115 million going to conferences in the past 10 years?

Sir George Young: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for identifying areas in which central Government can reduce the cost of administration. I see that his early-day motion does indeed identify some very large sums of money that have been spent on conferences and external meetings. I will communicate with my right hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General and get a response on the issues my hon. Friend raises.

The tragedy is that this example, is just one of many in which Government Departments wasted taxpayer's money, instead of spending it on frontline services. That £115 million should have been spent on getting people back into work.

I will let you know when I get asnwers to the FoI requests.

by Robert Halfon - www.roberthalfon.blogspot.com