HC Deb 06 February 1962 vol 653 cc203-4
3. Mr. Fisher

asked the Secretary for Technical Co-operation what plans he has to meet the need for technological and technical manpower, especially in the under-developed countries of the Commonwealth, to which the Oversea Migration Board draws attention in its Seventh Report.

Mr. Iain Macleod

I have been asked to reply.

I know that my right hon. Friend the Secretary for Technical Co-operation is well aware of the need for technological and technical manpower in the developing territories of the Commonwealth. His Department will, of course, do its best to meet any requests put to it from overseas Governments to help those countries in this field.

Mr. Fisher

Unlike hon. Members opposite, I am quite content for my right hon. Friend, with his enormous experience of these matters, to answer Questions about them.

Does my right hon. Friend agree with the Oversea Migration Board that, unless plans for education and training are stepped up, our resources of skilled professional manpower will be inadequate—as, indeed, they are already—to meet the increasing demands of the Commonwealth? Will he confer with his right hon. Friend the Minister of Education about this problem?

Mr. Macleod

The Report to which my hon. Friend draws attention indicates that not only in the Commonwealth but throughout the world there is a shortage of scientists, doctors, nurses and teachers. The Department of Technical Co-operation is trying, first by recruiting for service overseas, secondly by training people nominated by Governments overseas for this sort of work, and thirdly by liaison with professional bodies on both expansion and recruitment, to see that the need is met.

Mr. Mitchison

Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that the recent Report on the Long-Term Demand for Scientific Manpower said exactly the opposite of What the Report of the Oversea Migration Board says, since it presupposed a continuance of no more than the present rate of emigration of technologists? May we take it that on this point the right hon. Gentleman prefers to plan for an increase rather than to accept the present supply as sufficient?

Mr. Macleod

I do not think that anyone can accept the present supply as sufficient. I was basing myself, as I know my right hon. Friend does, on the Report of the Oversea Migration Board.