HC Deb 26 November 1991 vol 199 cc761-2
1. Mrs. Gorman

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what measures his Department has introduced to help mature women get back into the work force.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment (Mr. Robert Jackson)

Some 2.5 million more women are now in work than in 1983. That encouraging development has been assisted by a wide range of measures undertaken by the Government. They include the deregulation of labour markets, where there has been a 29 per cent. increase in female part-time employment and an almost threefold real-terms increase in Government-funded training programmes, in which women participate extensively.

Mrs. Gorman

I thank my hon. Friend for that reply and understand the Government's appreciation of the need for mature women in the labour market. Will he find time to consider the plight of my constituent, Mrs. Christine Williamson, who, after 25 years at home nursing a severely disabled child is now able to go back into the labour market, but finds herself in a Catch-22 situation? She cannot get a job without training and she cannot get training from the Basildon authorities so as to make herself available for work.

Mr. Speaker

Order. That would make a good Adjournment debate.

Mrs. Gorman

That, she tells me, is because the training is given to school leavers.

Mr. Jackson

I shall be happy to talk to my hon. Friend about her constituent's case. On the face of it, my immediate response is that, first, she should contact the local training and enterprise council, which will do its best to help. Secondly, I draw her attention to the career development loan scheme which the Government are funding. That is a helpful and positive scheme which has been developing successfully in recent years.

Mr.Tony Lloyd

Is the Minister aware that the occupational apartheid that exists in this country is clearly the result of over-costly and inadequate child care facilities and inflexible and unsatisfactory training provision? Precisely what do the Government intend to do to ensure that mature women have access to the proper sort of training and the necessary child care to allow them to play their full role in the labour market?

Mr. Jackson

I know that the Labour party is likely to conduct a vendetta against part-time workers, many of whom are women, although when women are asked what they think about part-time work, they reply that they very much appreciate it. We are doing more for training than any previous Government and the Labour party is in no position to lecture us on that subject.