HC Deb 22 February 1965 vol 707 cc21-2
22. Dame Irene Ward

asked the Minister of Labour what special retraining facilities will be available without a waiting period for the redundant miners of the Northumberland and Durham division over the next three years.

Mr. Marsh

This will depend on the trades in which training is required and the circumstances at the time.

Dame Irene Ward

In view of the very satisfactory reply that was given for Merseyside, can I look forward to a similarly satisfactory reply for the North-East Coast? Is the hon. Gentleman not aware that there is going to be increasing redundancy in the mining industry? Can he tell us what he is going to do for our miners on the North East Coast, for whom it is just as necessary to have a training scheme as it is for the miners on Merseyside?

Mr. Marsh

The hon. Lady is quite right—

Dame Irene Ward

Hooray.

Mr. Marsh

I am sure the hon. Lady has never had any doubts on that score.

Dame Irene Ward

Never.

Mr. Marsh

She is quite right in believing that both she and her constituents have far more cause for faith in the future than in the past.

As to the miners, we can cope with the position when it arises, but it is impossible to say what facilities we shall provide for specific groups of people before they are declared redundant and before we know whether they are prepared to take that sort of training.

Mr. Shinwell

Is my hon. Friend aware that the hon. Lady the Member for Tynemouth (Dame Irene Ward) is overwhelmed by deathbed repentance—

Dame Irene Ward

I am not dying.

Mr. Shinwell

Is my hon. Friend aware that we are all concerned that the hon. Lady should remain in this House for a long time to make the same mistake that she has made this afternoon in asking the question? Is he further aware that I have frequently asked the right hon. Member for Grantham (Mr. Godber) to provide training facilities for redundant miners in the North-East, and now it is necessary for hon. Members opposite to make the same demand from this Government?

Mr. Marsh

Coming between my right hon. Friend and the hon. Lady—

Dame Irene Ward

Do not bother.

Mr. Marsh

I was going to say, before the hon. Lady was in danger of splitting something, that coming between my right hon. Friend and the hon. Lady is a responsibility that I would rather not really want to shoulder, but it is possible to announce that my right hon. Friend is reviewing the whole question of extending Government training to these centres, and this is one area which may well benefit from the review.

Mr. Godber

In view of the supplementary question asked by the right hon. Member for Easington (Mr. Shinwell), will the hon. Gentleman confirm that in the North-East there has been a substantially increased provision of training facilities and places over the last two years?

Mr. Marsh

There have been increases in these facilities, but, as I am sure the right hon. Gentleman will accept, the whole tenor of these questions and the fact that his hon. Friend should have asked this Question prove conclusively that the policies were quite unsatisfactory.