Industrial Training Boards (Hansard, 20 January 1964)

11. Mr. Boyden asked
the Minister of Labour what additional staff he has appointed during the last three months to prepare the organisation for the Industrial Training Boards.

§ Mr. Godber
One officer has been added in the last three months to the eight officers engaged full-time on work arising out of the Industrial Training Bill. A further six will be appointed soon, and others as the need arises.

§ Mr. Boyden
Does the right hon. Gentleman recall that, during the Committee stage of the Bill, he said that he would be pressing on as hard as he could to get a good foundation for the scheme? Is he satisfied that this small number of staff is adequate to make all the consultations and take all the preparatory steps to give a good start to the scheme?

§ Mr. Godber
Yes, I am satisfied at present. We are going ahead on the lines which I indicated during the Committee stage and we are having a lot of consultations. But, of course, the ultimate accession of staff will be more to the boards themselves than to my Ministry, and this, I think, is where the bottleneck may arise at a later stage.

§ Mr. Prentice
Does the Minister agree that, apart from the staffing of the boards, what is required here is a major thrust from the centre? Haying turned down some of the suggestions made about having a separate central training authority and having decided that the effort should be within his Ministry, does the Minister really think that the numbers which he gave to my hon. Friend indicate a sufficient drive on his part?

§ Mr. Godber
Yes, I do. The work which can be done at this stage is limited to a certain extent. Once we have got the Act on the Statute Book, of course, we can enlarge on the amount of work we do. I have indicated the intake which I expect at present, but I shall not hesitate to increase it if the need arises.