§ 43. Mr. Eadieasked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity how many former miners in Scotland have been accepted for industrial retraining this year; and if she will list the counties in which they reside and their respective ages.
§ Mr. HattersleyUp to 11th April, 65 had been accepted for training at Government training centres. Of these, 30 came from Fife, 15 from Lanarkshire, 10 from Ayrshire, seven from Midlothian and one each from Clackmannanshire, Dumfriesshire and West Lothian. Two are between 18 and 20 years of age, 14 between 21 and 30, 19 between 31 and 40, 28 between 41 and 50, and two are 51 or over.
§ Mr. EadieThose figures are very low. Ought there not to be a more intense effort to publicise the facilities and opportunities which can be offered for industrial retraining?
§ Mr. HattersleyI very much regret that more miners in Scotland have not taken advantage of the increasing opportunities available to them. The hard fact is that, up to April this year, only 44 redundant miners had applied for retraining, though that in itself is a great improvement on last year, when only 47 applied in the whole 12 months.