§ 8. Mr. Hannamasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will introduce a period of youth community service for school leavers unable to secure employment.
§ The Under Secretary of State for Employment (Mr. John Fraser)The job creation programme is providing temporary work for unemployed people through community projects. It is intended particularly for young people, including school leavers.
§ Mr. HannamIs the Minister aware, however, that there is a serious lack of co-ordination among local authorities, community organisations and Government Departments? Will he not consider a one-year period of youth community service in environmental and social service work? Will he, also, consider a lowering of the retirement age to allow jobs to be opened up, particularly in the nationalised industries, for young people starting work?
§ Mr. FraserFirst, I do not accept what the hon. Gentleman said about lack of co-ordination. There has been cooperation recently between local authorities and Government services. The lowering of the retirement age could be very expensive. The steps that we are taking, such as the recruitment subsidy and the job creation programme, probably represent the right way to go about it.
§ Mr. BrittanDoes the hon. Gentleman agree that the job creation programme is only scratching the surface of the problem, and that by insisting on operating a scheme of this kind, applying wages of the normal kind rather than a more imaginative scheme on a voluntary basis, he is depriving the country of the opportunity to see much more massive job creation than at present?
§ Mr. FraserI do not accept that the provision of £30 million for 15,000 jobs is scratching the surface, along with all the other measures which have been taken. Nothing in that programme prevents organisations from forming voluntary programmes. After we have urgently taken this kind of step, the hon. Member's reaction is somewhat churlish.