HC Deb 20 January 1969 vol 776 cc10-2
7. Sir B. Rhys Williams

asked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity what estimate she has now made as to the numbers and ages of the men and the women who have left the hotel and catering industry since the imposition of Selective Employment Tax; and the extent to which they have been successful in obtaining alternative employment.

Mr. Hattersley

Mid-year estimates of employees in employment in Catering, Hotels, etc. (Minimum List Heading 884 of the 1958 edition of the Standard Industrial Classification) can be compared for different years to show net changes in the level of employment but there are no comprehensive statistics of the numbers of persons who have entered or left the industry. The changes between June 1966 and June 1967 were given in my reply to a Question by the hon. Member on 13th May 1968. It will be possible to measure subsequent changes when the mid-1968 estimates become available in a few weeks' time.—[Vol. 764, c. 169.]

Sir B. Rhys Williams

Is the hon. Gentleman aware of the difficulties in which people find themselves if they are thrown out of their jobs in the middle or during the latter part of their careers? Does he realise the difficulties made for them by the operation of the Selective Employment Tax in particular?

Mr. Hattersley

I do not minimise any of the problems. But I hope that the hon. Gentleman realises that in 1966 and subsequent situations there was need to find another and different method of raising revenue, and the S.E.T. is a unique and in many ways desirable way.

Mr. Paget

Would not my hon. Friend agree that, so far as the S.E.T. was designed to redeploy labour, it has been a total failure?

Mr. Hattersley

I would not agree. All the statistical evidence suggests that movement between industries has been substantially changed by the existence of the S.E.T. But I am grateful to my hon. and learned Friend for his reference to the redeployment intention of the tax, since he thereby reminded the House that the tax has other objectives which it is also achieving.

Mr. Scott

Is not one of the lunacies of the S.E.T. the fact that people have been turned out of service industries at the same time as a substantial drop in employment in manufacturing industry?

Mr. Hattersley

No, Sir. There are many virtues in the S.E.T. Time does not allow me to go into them, but the Opposition really should shed their obsession with the tax, which all objective judgment shows to be doing exactly the three jobs intended for it by the Government.