§ 3. Mr. Ridleyasked the Minister of Labour if he will seek to make grants towards the capital costs of training for skilled labour within firms.
§ The Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Labour (Mr. Roy Hattersley)I have no indication that the grants available through Industrial Training Boards are not sufficient for this purpose, but if the hon. Member has some particular type of case in mind I would be glad to have details of it.
§ Mr. RidleyIs it not true that a grant of £2 million was offered by the hon. Gentleman's Department for skilled training, but was turned down by the trade unions and is now available only for training semi-skilled workers? What is he going to do about this scandalous state of affairs?
§ Mr. HattersleyThe scandalous state of affairs as outlined by the hon. Gentleman does not exist. The sum of £2 million is available for the training of semi-skilled workers, but other comprehensive schemes for the training of skilled workers are available at Government training centres and other places, and by and large get the wholesale co-operation of the trade unions.