HC Deb 20 February 1967 vol 741 cc1121-3
6. Mr. Winnick

asked the Minister of Labour how present economic difficulties have affected placings by the executive sections of employment exchanges.

Mr. Fernyhough

In the last half of 1966 placings by the Professional and Executive Register were lower than in the last half of 1965 by a little over 6 per cent.

Mr. Winnick

Is my hon. Friend aware that some executives who have been sacked are having tremendous difficulties because they are in their forties and fifties? May we be told what action is being taken generally throughout industry and commerce to deal with discrimination because people happen to be in their late forties or early fifties?

Mr. Fernyhough

The staff on the Professional Executive Register are doing all that they can, and I could give my hon. Friend numerous individual cases in which men far beyond that age have been placed in very well-paid jobs. At the moment the rate of finding jobs for them is averaging 150 a week where it was averaging 160 a week at the beginning of the year.

Sir K. Joseph

Will the hon. Gentleman take very seriously the point made by his hon. Friend? Will he agree that from this side of the House a number of positive proposals were made to him for improving the Professional and Executive Register, and will he ask his right hon. Friend to take some action to improve the service that is given?

Mr. Fernyhough

I should like to say two things to the right hon. Gentleman: first, the number of people whom we have placed from this register each year since its inception has gone up—

Sir K. Joseph

Unemployment has gone up, too.

Mr. Fernyhough

I said that the number whom we have placed has gone up. That means placed in employment. With regard to the suggestions made during the Adjournment debate, as I then pointed out to the right hon. Gentleman, we will act upon some of them. He knows that all of them would have demanded an increase in Government expenditure, and an increase in the number of civil servants, and I hope that if we do both these things we shall not hear objections from the right hon. Gentleman and his hon. Friends.

49. Mr. Kenneth Lewis

asked the Minister of Labour what improvements he proposes to make in the Professional and Executive Register in order to improve its service to those who register for employment.

Mr. Fernyhough

Within the limits set by the recruiting practices of industry, the Register has had a record of steadily increasing success. In the past year more staff were made available and we are considering whether further extension is practicable.

Mr. Lewis

Is the Parliamentary Secretary not being a little complacent? Does he not recognise that this Register has success in people registering for jobs but the difficulty is that the Professional and Executive Register does not get jobs coming into it which it can give to people registering for those jobs? Will he do something about this?

Mr. Fernyhough

Far from not getting jobs, I am happy to inform the hon. Member that last year we placed 7,900 people from the Register in very good employment.

Sir K. Joseph

Will the hon. Gentleman stop taking credit for a rise in placings at a time when there is greatly increasing unemployment and a need for placings?

Mr. Fernyhough

If we are discussing the success of the Register and each year the number of people placed by the Register goes up, that surely shows that it is a successful organisation.