§ 5. Mr. Hendersonasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the prospects for the Scottish economy for the remainder of 1976.
§ Mr. William RossI have nothing to add to the reply which I gave to the hon. Member for Glasgow, Cathcart (Mr. Taylor) on 21st January.
§ Mr. HendersonIs not that answer totally inappropriate on the day after the announcement of disastrous unemployment figures? Is not the right hon. Gentleman aware that the Fraser of Allander Institute forecasts that there will be no real recovery in output in the second half of 1976 and that unemployment will rise even higher?
§ Mr. RossI do not consider the unemployment figures of yesterday disastrous. [HON. MEMBERS: "Oh."] I con- 384 sider SNP Members themselves a disaster. If we had taken all their advice about slowing down oil development and other matters, unemployment would have been even higher. There is every evidence of a considerable easement in Scotland as well as in the United Kingdom as a whole and there is not the same reason as in the past for gloom about unemployment. Of course, if the SNP is committed to the posters that it puts up about things like unemployed school leavers, its members must welcome gloom, but there is no gloom in the figures presented yesterday.
§ Mr. Robert HughesIs it true that not a great deal of the money that the Government have made available in Scotland for retraining has been taken up? What steps can my right hon. Friend take to encourage local authorities and employers to use the money that the Government have made available for a very good purpose?
§ Mr. RossThese matters are not my direct responsibility. We had a meeting in the House yesterday about training and job creation and we are putting forward proposals to get some steam behind the programme. The money is there and is being used, but we want schemes to come forward much more quickly. With the money at present being poured into industry, we hope to build up a pattern of prosperity which I am sure can be achieved with the co-operation of everyone in Scotland.
§ Mr. Buchanan-SmithCan the right hon. Gentleman really be so complacent about the unemployment figures, which have risen in Scotland at the same time as they have been reduced in the rest of the United Kingdom? Can he not recall the fuss that he made when he was in opposition about the news of 90,000 unemployed in Scotland? Why are the figures rising in Scotland when Scotland has the boost of the oil industry? Is it perhaps because the Government's policies towards the oil industry have slowed down and are strangling the important development which Scotland should be having?
§ Mr. RossThe hon. Member is talking nonsense. Over the last year, the Scottish economy and employment figures have stood up better than the figures for any other part of the United Kingdom—and that in the worst recession that we have 385 had since the 1930s. As I listen to hon. Members making these complaints, I remember how they voted against the Government's Chrysler solution and I imagine what kind of unemployment figures we should have if they had been in charge then. Have they forgotten that in March 1972 there were more unemployed in Scotland than there are today, when a Conservative Government were in office and when there was no world recession and no rise in oil prices? That was just the disastrous effect of Tory policies.