HC Deb 08 June 1939 vol 348 cc569-70
8. Sir Annesley Somerville

asked the Minister of Labour whether, in view of the gravity of the problem of the younger unemployed to which special attention has been directed by the chairman of the Unemployment Assistance Board, he will, in conjunction with the President of the Board of Education, take steps to deal effectively with this problem?

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

I assume that my hon. Friend has in mind the results of blind-alley employment to which the Unemployment Assistance Board drew attention in the report recently issued. As I explained in my reply of 5th June to my hon. Friend the Member for West Lewisham (Mr. Brooke), the National Advisory Council for Juvenile Employment have been asked to investigate this and other aspects of the juvenile employment problem, and I hope it will be possible to start this, by means of a sample survey, in the near future. In advising and assisting juveniles in the matter of employment there is, of course, close cooperation between my right hon. Friend's Department and the Board of Education.

Mr. J. Griffiths

Will the survey include an investigation into the large number of boys between the ages of 14 and 18 who are employed in the coal industry?

Mr. Lennox-Boyd

That is the sort of matter that it will include.