HC Deb 06 December 1956 vol 561 cc1439-41
28 and 29. Mr. Ellis Smith

asked the Minister of Labour (1) if he will make a statement on the action which has been taken on the 1955 Report on the Recruitment of Scientists and Engineers by the engineering industry and the 1956 Report on Scientific and Engineering Manpower;

(2) what further action is contemplated on the lines of that explained in the foreword of the 1956 Report on Scientific and Engineering Manpower; and what action it is intended to take to improve the educational and training facilities for craft apprentices in the engineering industry and to give more encouragement to them to qualify for the higher national certificates or higher national diplomas.

The Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour (Mr. Robert Carr)

The 1955 Report on the Recruitment of Scientists and Engineers by the engineering industry did not call for any action by Her Majesty's Government. As regards the 1956 Report on Scientific and Engineering Manpower, I cannot add to what has been said by my right hon. Friend the Minister of Education in the White Paper on Technical Education and by my right hon. Friend the Financial Secretary to the Treasury on 21st November in his statement to the House on university expansion. As regards apprenticeship, the National Joint Advisory Council has instituted an inquiry into the whole question taking particular account of the fact that in the next few years there will be an increasing number of boys and girls leaving school and coming into industry.

Mr. Ellis Smith

I have those two excellent reports here. I cannot understand why a reply should be prepared saying that they do not call for any action. Is the hon. Gentleman satisfied that secondary school facilities are satisfactory, for example, and that the possibility of going from elementary to secondary school and from secondary school to university is satisfactory? If so, will he read the evidence put in by large-scale employers which shows that they are very indignant at the slow way that the Government are moving upon reports of this kind?

Mr. Carr

Many of the points which the hon. Gentleman makes should be put to my right hon. Friend the Minister of Education. It is a fact that the 1955 Report—I only said the 1955 Report—did not call for any action by the Government. The 1956 Report is a different matter.

Mr. Lee

Has the Minister any power to help in the production of laboratory equipment and that kind of thing, which I feel is now the bottleneck in the expansion of this sort of education?

Mr. Carr

That is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Minister of Education and not for the Minister of Labour.

Mr. W. R. Williams

Is the Minister aware that large numbers of our best scientists and engineers are receiving most attractive inducements from America and elsewhere to go over there? As they are so urgently required in this country to deal with technical training establishments, what in the Ministry of Education trying to do about it?

Mr. Carr

I cannot speak for my right hon. Friend the Minister of Education, but I think the hon. Gentleman knows, as the whole House knows, that the Government have during this year announced major plans for important extensions in these fields because they recognise that they are of vital importance to the country.

Mr. Ellis Smith

Did I understand the Minister to say that he admitted that the 1956 Report called for action? If so, what action is being taken?

Mr. Carr

I can only refer the hon. Gentleman to the replies which I have mentioned and which have already dealt with that point.