§ 22. Mr. Boydenasked the President of the Board of Trade how many applications to the advisory committee for assistance under the Local Employment Act had been submitted to his Department three months or more before being dealt with by the committee.
§ The Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade (Mr. Niall Macpherson)To ascertain the exact figure would involve a disproportionate amount of work in examining over 250 case histories. In nearly all cases more than three months elapse between the first submission of the application to the Board of Trade and the committee's decision on it. But in nearly all cases less than three months elapse between the date at which the applicant has supplied all the necessary preliminary information and the date of the committee's decision.
§ Mr. BoydenWill not the Parliamentary Secretary agree that there is a great discrepancy between the efficiency and speed of his own regional offices locally and that of the other officers who 1358 make investigations before the advisory committee hears the application? Could he not split the advisory committee into panels so that the work is dealt with more expeditiously?
§ Mr. MacphersonIt is not a question of efficiency. The efficiency involved is the efficiency of examining the case by the technological officers and the accountants.
§ 23. Mr. Boydenasked the President of the Board of Trade if he will list the principal reasons why the advisory committee have rejected applications for assistance under the Local Employment Act; and if he will indicate the numbers of rejected applications falling into each category.
§ Mr. N. MacphersonThe most common reasons are unsatisfactory references, over-estimates of future turnover or profits, under-estimates of capital expenditure, doubts as to the capacity of the management, inadequate working capital, too high a proportion of loan capital to permament capital. It is not possible to break down rejected applications into categories. Normally more than one reason applies.
§ Mr. BoydenWhilst being grateful to the Parliamentary Secretary for being a little more forthcoming than he has been in the past, may I ask him why he cannot give some general indication to this sort of applicant? There are considerable misgivings on the part of many applicants that their applications are not being considered fairly, and could he not satisfy them by dealing with them more efficiently?
§ Mr. MacphersonNo, Sir. It is one thing to give general categories and another thing to give particular reasons in particular cases. I do not think we could do that.