HC Deb 02 August 1972 vol 842 cc558-60
32. Mr. John Smith

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will cause the Scottish Development Department to make a study on the consequences for the Scottish economy changes in the pattern of employment in the British steel industry.

Mr. Gordon Campbell

The Scottish Economic Planning Board, on which the British Steel Corporation is represented, is reviewing all questions arising from the prospective changes in the pattern of employment in the steel industry in Scotland.

Mr. Smith

Does the right hon. Gentleman appreciate that in a county like Lanarkshire, where we have 9 per cent. unemployment, the announcement of 7,500 redundancies throughout Scotland in the steel industry has caused mounting fear and despair for the future? Is it not time that the Government stopped restricting the expansion plans of the British Steel Corporation and allowed it to expand properly in Scotland and elsewhere?

Mr. Campbell

I do not accept that the Government are restricting in the way that the hon. Member mentions. We discussed this at length on Thursday in the debate. I would point out that in the hon. Member's area a factory is being extended to 120,000 sq. ft. with almost 700 employees affected, and also that Cummins Engines Ltd. has announced an increase in employment of about 180 workers. As I announced last week there is the new motorway which will greatly assist the hon. Member's constituency.

Mr. Edward Taylor

While these investments are greatly to be welcomed, would my right hon. Friend say whether, in the event of a decision not being taken on the proposed steelworks at Hunterston by the end of the year, it will be necessary for the Government to obtain the consent of the European Coal and Steel Industry before a decision is taken?

Mr. Campbell

My hon. Friend knows that the option is open as regards the steelworks at Hunterston. I cannot answer the second supplementary question without notice.

Mr. Lawson

Will the right hon. Gentleman make it perfectly clear that the onus for finding work, as the work goes out and is phased in, rests to a very large extent upon the Government themselves and not just upon the British Steel Corporation? Will he endeavour, in the changes which are being brought about in the steel industry, to see that the Scottish steel industry retains a substantial measure of variety and does not become simply a two-product industry and nothing else?

Mr. Campbell

The hon. Member could have heard me say in the debate on Thursday that the corporation wished to give the unions notice of this; it thought it was right to give to Scotland and to the unions notice of what was to start happening in about two years' time No individual closures have been announced. These are matters which will be announced by the corporation with the usual notice but the Government, as I said last Thursday, are concerned about the question of alternative employment where redundancies occur.