HC Deb 04 March 1964 vol 690 cc1283-4
11. Mr. Wingfield Digby

asked the Secretary of State for War what was the intake of trained civilian fitters last year; and how many were trained in the same period by War Department apprenticeship schemes.

Mr. Kirk

350 and 71 respectively.

Mr. Digby

Is my hon. Friend aware that I am receiving complaints from my constituency that these trained men are being attracted away by the War Department which is not training sufficient itself to replace them?

Mr. Kirk

We are training one apprentice to every eight craftsmen, which seems to us a reasonbly satisfactory performance. I do not think that we can be attracting too many trained men away, because we have only the R.E.M.E. workshop at Bovington and there are only 24 apprentices there.