§ 19. Mr. William Hamiltonasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many new jobs have been created in Fife in each of the last five years ; how many were for men and how many for women ; and how many jobs were lost in the same period.
§ Mr. Anthony GrantThe information is not available. However, unemployment was 900 lower at the end of 1973 compared with five years previously.
§ Mr. HamiltonWhy is not the information available? How can the Minister judge the effectiveness of the working of the Industry Act if he does not have figures such as those requested in the Question? The new town of Glenrothes is, I think, the only town in Scotland without a public service authority building in which office workers are employed. Will he have regard to that when the Government are deciding the distribution of the offices of the new Energy Department?
§ Mr. GrantThe figures are not available in the form requested because they were previously obtained from industrial development certificate applications, and the need for IDCs was abolished in 1972. However, we hope that it will be possible to obtain more information from planning applications. Certainly we want to have in the hon. Gentleman's area the widest possible diversity of industry and commerce. I shall take careful note of what he says about Glenrothes, but I am fortified by the remarks of the Convener of Fife County Council, writing about Fife only last week, when he said:
At no time in its history has the industrial and commercial mix of the county been better, nor its sophistication more widely spread.