HC Deb 03 May 1971 vol 816 cc997-8
19. Mr. Roderick

asked the Secretary of State for Wales how many groups of local authorities or other bodies have asked him to meet them to discuss employment in their area; and how many he has met.

Mr. Peter Thomas

My Department does not maintain a comprehensive statistical record of such matters. By the end of this month I will have met all the county councils and many other authorities in Wales. Employment has usually figured prominently in my discussions with them.

Mr. Roderick

The Secretary of State has not answered my Question. I asked how many groups of local authorities had requested meetings with him to discuss employment in their areas. Is the right hon. and learned Gentleman not aware that many such groups meet at most weekends to discuss worries about their areas? If the right hon. Gentleman has had very few requests, does he not feel that local authorities may believe that he is either unwilling or unable to help them?

Mr. Peter Thomas

I answered the Question when I said that my Department does not maintain a comprehensive statistical record of such matters. As for the other part of the Question, I am always ready to consider the request of right hon. and hon. Members that we should meet for the purpose of discussing the problems of their constituencies. The hon. Gentleman will recall that I had such a discussion with him and the hon. Member for Merthyr Tydvil (Mr. S. O. Davies) recently. It was following that discussion that I was asked to meet the hon. Gentleman again with certain local authority representatives, and I felt that little purpose would be served in going over the matter again.

Mr. John Morris

Is the right hon. and learned Gentleman aware that there is growing concern with unemployment in Wales? Can he confirm that the Government regard high unemployment as a means of combating cost inflation? Will he agree that to the man in the dole queue it is part of Government policy to see 10 men chasing nine jobs in order to stop wage rises? Is not the word "Tory" once again synonymous with "unemployment" in Wales?

Mr. Peter Thomas

That is quite extraordinary, as the right hon. Gentleman should know perfectly well, since he was a member of a Government which deliberately pursued policies which created unemployment. I ask the right hon. Gentleman to look again at the measures in the 1966 Budget and the restrictive policies which followed. It is totally untrue that high unemployment is part of Conservative policy. Our policy is the creation of full employment.