§ 18. Mr. Kenneth Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity whether she will seek powers to enable Government training centres to recover part of their costs by way of grant from relevant industrial training boards.
§ Mr. HattersleyMy right hon. Friend has no present plans to seek such powers.
§ Mr. LewisDoes not the Minister think that there would be a great deal of advantage in expanding training 18 through the Government training centres if there were closer links between Government training centres and the training boards?
§ Mr. HattersleyI think that a strong, theoretical case can be made out for developing the sort of links that the hon. Gentleman advocates, but there are also substantial disadvantages. One is being sure which costs in each centre should be rightly allocated to which board. A second is the Government's emphasis on placing new G.T.C.s in development areas, which might be regarded by some board contributors as an unfair burden on them.
§ Mr. ScottWould not considerable advantages accrue to Government training centres if they were in the main stream of industrial training developments because they would have all the information and all the influences at work on training as a whole?
§ Mr. HattersleyThe hon. Gentleman's question implies that because the G.T.C.s are not under the direct control of the training boards there is a dichotomy of interest. I think that is quite untrue. If the hon. Gentleman considers the relationship between the Construction Board and Government training he will see how closely the two organisations work.