HC Deb 29 April 1971 vol 816 cc689-90
5. Mr. Robert Taylor

asked the Secretary of State for Employment whether, in view of the fact that the liability of the Construction Industry Training Board to pay grants in its Statement of Accounts for the year ended 31st March 1970 is only taken to 31st July, 1969, which is the same period covered by the Statement of Accounts for the preceding year, he will request the Board to publish audited interim accounts to cover the period to 30th September, 1970.

The Minister of State, Department of Employment (Mr. Paul Bryan)

No. The basis of the Board's accounts was changed in 1970 on the advice of independent consultants to bring out more clearly the grant expenditure to which the levy income shown related. An interim set of accounts would be misleading.

Mr. Taylor

Will my hon. Friend accept that what the vast majority of small and medium-sized building firms await, along with similar-sized firms of builders' merchants, is not a set of interim accounts or annual accounts but one final account to wind up this unhappy inflationary concern?

Mr. Bryan

As my hon. Friend would expect, I am particularly interested in this Board and keep in close touch with it. Indeed, I spent an hour with the Chairman the day before yesterday. Financial control has been considerably tightened and I believe that the industry has more confidence in the Board now that this is so.

Mr. Albu

Will the hon. Gentleman assure us that he will do nothing to destroy one of the few useful measures introduced by the previous Conservative Government, which has done a great deal to improve the standard of industrial training which, in the construction industry, was so abysmal?

Mr. Bryan

My Department is conducting a deep inquiry into this question together with all other manpower aspects of our activities, and we are taking into account both the successes and the failures of the boards.