§ 23. Commander BELLAIRSasked the Minister of Labour how many disabled sailors and soldiers are now under training through the efforts of the 17 divisional training committees; how many of these are training for the building trade; whether the directors of these divisional training centres have complete power to act on the evidence placed before them as to the number of men the industry is capable of absorbing, or whether they have to be guided by votes of the members of their committees; and whether he will add to the committees representatives of the sailors and soldiers?
The MINISTER of LABOUR (Sir R. Home)19,514 such men are now under training, of whom 1,505 are being trained in the building trade. In deciding as to the capacity of a particular industry to absorb more labour the Divisional Directors of Industrial Training are guided by local technical advisory committees representing the local organisations of employers and workpeople in the trades concerned, who ought to be in the best position to gauge the prospects of employment in their own districts. The addition to these committees of representatives of the ex-Service men is now under the consideration of the various national trade advisory committees who are responsible for determining the constitution of local technical advisory committees.