HC Deb 12 July 1956 vol 556 cc584-5
44. Mr. Redhead

asked the Minister of Labour what staffing economies he contemplates in his Department; and whether he will make a statement.

Mr. Iain Macleod

Following a review of the work, organisation, and staffing throughout my Department, I expect to secure economies which will save about 2,000 staff by the end of 1957. I am circulating a statement on the savings to be effected in the current financial year in the OFFICIAL REPORT in Answer to the hon. Member for Shoreditch and Finsbury (Mr. Collins).

Mr. Redhead

Does not the right hon. Gentleman agree that this is a singularly inappropriate time to contemplate reductions of this character and this magnitude, at a period when there is increasing need for the services of his Department? Would he further agree that it is a fact that he has received urgent representations from the staff associations concerned expressing their alarm at the effects on the efficiency of his Department of these economies, and that in reply thereto he has intimated and agreed publicly to acknowledge that he expects these reductions to result in a reduction in the standards of service of his Department?

Mr. Macleod

Any great public Department, as with all great public undertakings, should keep its services under review and I make no apology at all for carrying out a searching review, although, of course, it is perfectly true—and I say this in the statement which I shall issue in the OFFICIAL REPORT—that in some cases the scale of the services may be affected, but I am certain that the standards will not be.

Mr. G. Brown

Is it true that it is to be branch employment offices and the Appointments Bureaux and the Technical and Scientific Register which are being cut? Is not the Minister, by his own will, choosing at this moment to cut down staff in the branch employment offices when he is trying to redeploy labour?

Mr. Macleod

Those are different matters. We are now and have for a long time been in a period of full employment. Apart from the drop in the unemployment figures which we all welcome very much indeed, there have been changes in habits in the population, changes in the availability of transport and other matters. Of course it is right, in the light of those, that local services should be reviewed, and the outlined results of those reviews will be in the OFFICIAL REPORT of today.

Mr. G. Brown

Will the OFFICIAL REPORT also say which branch offices are being shut, so that we can see which they are?

Mr. Macleod

At this stage, of course not.

Mr. G. Brown

Can we not be told?