§ 21. Mr. Gordon Campbellasked the Secretary of State for Economic Affairs if he will make a statement on the relationship between the White Paper on the Scottish Economy of 1966 and the revised national plan now being prepared.
§ Mr. Frederick LeeThe economic assessment for 1972, now under discussion in the N.E.D.C., applies to Great Britain as a whole and so has implications for Scotland. But, as the Secretary of State for Scotland has said on several occasions, the aims set out in the 1966 Scottish White Paper for improvements to the Scottish economy remain unchanged and efforts to achieve these aims are being fully maintained.
§ Mr. CampbellAs this Scottish White Paper was directly related to the National Plan, which was later abandoned, how 1551 can it also be relevant to the new planning document?
§ Mr. LeeI have already said that the new planning document takes into account the 1966 White Paper. There is no contradiction.
§ Mr. William HamiltonWill my right hon. Friend give an assurance that the new National Plan will not deviate from the very successful regional development policies, because, if it did, and if it adopted the policies of the Leader of the Opposition, the whole of the North-East of Scotland, the whole of the South-West and the Borders would be excluded from those policies, with great ill-effect on the employment problem? Does not my right hon. Friend recognise that in 1964 the Scottish proportion of United Kingdom unemployment was 19.4 per cent and last year it was reduced to 13.3 per cent. because of Government policies?
§ Mr. LeeI entirely agree with my hon. Friend. He will have noted, though apparently hon. Members opposite have not, that during the past four months that favourable trend has increased each month and that today's figures, even in December, are again showing improvements on the unemployment levels in September. This is the result of the Government's development area policies; and we propose to maintain them.