Ministers outline work programme

Bass, Allied Domecq and GrandMet were among the line-up of top companies to hear first-hand how the new Labour Government intends to run its welfare-to-work programme.

At a working breakfast held at 11 Downing Street, attended by leading businesses and trade unions, Education and Employment Secretary David Blunkett and Chancellor Gordon Brown outlined the scheme, aimed at getting 250,000 young people off the dole and into a job.

The so-called "New Deal" offers firms an incentive of £75 a week to recruit people over 25 who have been unemployed for more than two years, and £60 a week to take on a young trainee.

A spokesman for Bass said that it was too early to say whether the company would go ahead and participate in the Government's scheme. "We are not making any commitment. We want to see the specifics," he said.