HC Deb 19 March 1962 vol 656 cc19-21
24 and 25. Miss Herbison

asked the Minister of Labour (1) what alternative employment there is in the Gartcosh area for those men who have become unemployed as the result of the run-down of operations at Smith and McLean's steel works; and

(2) how many are now registered as unemployed at Coatbridge Employment Exchange; and what percentage of the insured population this number represents.

Mr. Green

At 12th February, there were 1,644 workers registered as unemployed at Coatbridge Employment Exchange; in the North Lanarkshire travel-to-work group, which includes Coatbridge, the numbers unemployed at that date represented 6.2 per cent. of the insured population. There are few local vacancies immediately available for unemployed workers from Smith and McLean's Steel Works, but I understand that Messrs. Colvilles Limited will continue to give priority to these employees in recruiting for their new plant at Gartcosh.

Miss Herbison

Is the hon. Gentleman aware that a high unemployment rate of 6.2 per cent. is worrying those who are now leaving Smith and McLean's with no sign of any work? Is he also aware that only in 1957 Smith and McLean's employed 1,100 workers but today employ less than 200 and the steel rolling mills employ less than 300? Does he not realise that the Ministry of Labour and the Board of Trade need to do something serious? What are the prospects?

Mr. Green

The prospects for the iron and steel industry, which I presume is what the hon. Lady referred to at the very end of her supplementary question, are very difficult for me accurately to assess. Perhaps she would like to table a Question to my right hon. Friend the Minister of Power. The Government have done a good deal in this matter, and I hope have shown their concern in a thoroughly practical way. The new cold reduction plant and the Ravens-craig strip mill are concrete evidence of this. It is in these newer steel producing processes that the workers from the older plants are being absorbed.

Miss Herbison

Is not the hon. Gentleman aware that these new steel production plants will not employ as many men as the old steel production plants? Is he also aware that I was not referring to what is happening in the steel industry, which is working at only 57 per cent. of its capacity in Scotland? I was asking what the Ministry of Labour, in conjunction with the Board of Trade, is doing to attract new industry to this area which has been so seriously hit. Further, would the Ministry of Labour, the Board of Trade and the Ministry of Fuel and Power, through the National Coal Board, get together to see if they can do something for this area which is so badly hit?

Mr. Green

I understand that there are—I hope not to be laughed at for this—about 7,000 new jobs coming along in North Lanarkshire. I quite appreciate the concern felt by the hon. Lady and by her hon. Friends. [Interruption.] I hope that future prospects of the area will not be so lugubriously written off by those who express such interest in it. Of course the Government are concerned. A good deal of new industry has gone up to Scotland, and we hope to see more.