§ 7. Mr. Ginsburgasked the Minister of Labour if he will undertake a study through the local employment exchanges of the distances travelled to and from work in the West Riding of Yorkshire; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. HareThe very considerable amount of work involved in a comprehensive survey of this sort would not be justified, particularly since the Workplace Tables from the 1961 Census are now in course of preparation.
§ Mr. GinsburgWould the Minister expedite this analysis from the Census? Is he aware that there is grave anxiety about the lack of new job opportunities in many parts of the West Riding? Is he aware that this fact compels people in many areas of the West Riding to have to travel excessive distances to obtain work of any kind?
§ Mr. HareThe hon. Member is right. There is a great deal of daily travel between numbers of places in the West Riding, in which his constituency lies, but, as my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary has just said, although the unemployment rate for Yorkshire is below the national average, there are places in South Yorkshire where unemployment rates are high.
§ Mr. WainwrightDoes the right hon. Gentleman realise that many young girls travel 40 miles a day and spend two or three hours in a bus on the journey? Does he think that is right from a health point of view? Would the right hon. Gentleman take into account the fact that if this kind of labour stayed in its own district the unemployment figures would be terribly high in these areas?
§ Mr. HareI am not unsympathetic to what the hon. Member for Dewsbury (Mr. Ginsburg) and the hon. Member for Dearne Valley (Mr. Wainwright) have said, but we have to look at the country as a whole. There are other parts where the unemployment situation is a great deal more severe.