HC Deb 03 December 1934 vol 295 cc1226-7
35. Mr. SMEDLEY CROOKE

asked the Minister of Labour whether his attention has been drawn to the effort which is being made in the town of Redditch to help the distressed areas by filling vacancies for juveniles and others from those areas through the medium of the local Employment Exchange; and whether he will cause instructions to be issued to the Exchanges in Birmingham and other districts where there is a scarcity of this class of labour to follow the lead of Redditch by vigorously pursuing this method of helping the distressed areas?

The PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY to the MINISTRY of LABOUR (Mr. R. S. Hudson)

My right hon. Friend's attention has already been drawn to the number of workers—and particularly juveniles—for whom work has been found through the Redditch Employment Exchange, and my right hon. Friend has recently conveyed to the chairman of the Redditch Juvenile Advisory Committee his appreciation of what is being done by that body and by local employers to help these boys and girls to settle happily in their new surroundings. In Birmingham juvenile vacancies are filled by the Juvenile Employment Bureau of the local education authority and not by the Employment Exchanges. A special appeal has recently been made to all such authorities in areas experiencing a shortage of juvenile labour—of which Birmingham is one—asking their co-operation in the Government policy of increasing juvenile transference from the depressed areas, and my right hon. Friend has every hope that there will be a favourable response to that appeal.

Mr. SMEDLEY CROOKE

Is it not the fact that as trade and industry stand in some parts of the country it is possible to fill these vacancies from distressed areas without doing anyone in the locality out of a job?

Mr. HUDSON

Generally speaking, that is true.

Mr. PALING

Are these jobs in these areas continuous for these juveniles?

Mr. HUDSON

Recent inquiries which have been made show that in the prosperous areas there has not been the turning off of juveniles under 16 years of age which many of us thought would be the case.