HC Deb 28 October 1952 vol 505 cc1729-31
36. Mr. Hamilton

asked the Minister of Labour the total number of women registered as wholly unemployed in Scotland in August, 1952; what is this figure expressed as a percentage of the total unemployed; and whether the percentage of women registered as wholly unemployed in central Fife is greater than that for the country as a whole.

Mr. Watkinson

The total number of women and girls registered as wholly unemployed in Scotland at 11th August, 1952, was 23,861. This figure represented 36 per cent. of the total number of males and females registered as unemployed in Scotland at the same date. I am not sure precisely what area the hon. Member has in mind in the latter part of the Question, but for the Cowdenbeath, Kirkcaldy, Leslie and Leven and Methil employment exchanges the corresponding percentage was 53.

Mr. Hamilton

Is the Minister aware of the increasing difficulty of women and girls finding employment in Central Fife, that this is causing tremendous hardship to the parents, and will be indicate what steps are being contemplated by his Department to remedy this situation?

Mr. Watkinson

My right hon. and learned Friend and myself are well aware of that, and I am grateful to the hon. Member, who came to see me about it when I was recently in Scotland. We are quite aware of the difficulty, which I think is greater in Central Fife than elsewhere in Scotland, in finding employment for women. We do what we can to bring this matter to the notice of appropriate Government Departments.

Mr. Hamilton

Will the Parliamentary Secretary make representations to the Ministry of Transport to see if we can get that bridge across the Forth?

Mr. Langford-Holt

What percentage of these women are married and what percentage are unmarried?

Mr. Watkinson

I could not say without notice.

Mr. Hubbard

Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that there is no such place in Fife which is pronounced as he pronounced Kirkcaldy?

Mr. Watkinson

I apologise for my Sassenach pronunciation. I am afraid I did not stay long enough in Scotland.

37. Mr. Hamilton

asked the Minister of Labour the total amount of wholly unemployed in Scotland on the latest date for which figures are available; what was the comparable figure for a year ago; and what steps he is taking to remedy the situation.

Mr. Watkinson

Sixty-one thousand two hundred and sixty-two at 15th September, 1952, compared with 45,852 at 17th September, 1951. It is the constant concern of my right hon. and learned Friend and his colleagues to encourage the growth of industry in those areas in which there is a special unemployment problem, and I would refer the hon. Member in particular to the answer given by my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on 21st October about the factory building programme for 1953.

Mr. Hamilton

Does not the Minister realise that this is a really alarming increase in the number of unemployed on the register in Scotland, and how soon will the Government be able to announce what action they are taking on this and associated problems in view of the recommendations of the recent Cairncross Report?

Mr. Watkinson

We can get the picture in rather more accurate perspective if we also look at 1950. In round figures, the number for 1952 was 61,000, that for 1951, as I have said, was 45,000, but that in 1950 it was nearly back to the same figure, 56,000.

Mr. Hamilton

Can the hon. Gentleman give a figure including those on part-time?

Mr. Watkinson

No, but I will answer the second part of the hon. Gentleman's first supplementary question, which he did not give me time to answer. My right hon. and learned Friend would not have asked me to go to Buckie and other places in North-East Scotland this summer to look into the position most carefully myself if he had not been aware that there was a special problem and that it will be necessary to take some action to meet it.