§ 4. Mr. Malcolm MacMillanasked the Minister of Labour whether, in view of the failure of the herring fishing season in the Western Isles resulting from the curing ban of the Herring Industry Board and the consequent hardships, he will make representations to the Unemployment Assistance Board that additional winter allowances be made in this area 340 in view of the failure of the local advisory committee to represent the case of applicants last winter?
§ Mr. E. BrownI am informed by the Unemployment Assistance Board that cases in the Western Isles will be considered for winter additions on their merits with due regard to the conditions peculiar to the area.
§ Mr. MacMillanIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that last year, by a general sweeping decision of the local advisory committee, these people were prevented, in spite of the need for additional winter allowances, from having any additional allowances made to them; and that hundreds of cases have come to my notice, at public meetings and some individually, of people who were definitely penalised because of the inhumanity and ignorance of conditions of the local advisory committee?
§ Mr. BrownI cannot accept that at all. These are sweeping assertions. The local advisory committee is dealing with all kinds of people, and as the hon. Member and this House know, the economy of the Western Isles is entirely different from the economy elsewhere, and we must have regard to the advice of the local advisory committee in this matter. On the other hand, applicants, as the hon. Member knows, have the right to appeal.
§ Mr. MacMillanIs not the Minister aware that in almost every part of the country the advisory committees advised that these additional winter allowances be made, and that in this particular area, where the climate is more rigorous in winter time, they are refused out of sheer inhumanity and ignorance?
§ Mr. MacMillanIs it not the duty of the Minister to see that justice is done?