Recruitment (Hansard, 20 June 1979)

§ 60. Mr. Cryer
asked the Minister for the Civil Service if he will make a statement on the freeze on recruitment to the Civil Service.

§ The Minister of State, Civil Service Department (Mr. Paul Channon)
I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave my hon. Friend the Member for Rutland and Stamford (Mr. Lewis) on 22 May.

§ Mr. Cryer
I do not have that reply to hand. Does the Minister agree that the freeze on recruitment will breed bad industrial relations in the Civil Service, as is shown by the fact that we have had no copies of Hansard this week? Does the Minister accept that apparently there are exceptions to the general rule? Is he aware that more driving examiners are to be appointed?

§ Mr. Nicholas Winterton
They are self-financing.

§ Mr. Cryer
Then does the Minister accept that he would do better to employ more civil servants to track down tax evaders and avoiders, who cost hundreds of millions of pounds a year, instead of pursuing Tory, doctrinaire policies and bashing social security applicants to save the £3.2 million which is lost in that direction?

§ Mr. Channon
I shall draw the hon. Member's suggestion to the attention of my colleagues. I have no evidence that the recruitment ban is having an effect on industrial relations. The dispute to which the hon. Member referred is about a different matter. I note what he has said.

§ Mr. Stokes
Is my hon. Friend aware that the public approve of the proposed cuts in the Civil Service? What they want to know is whether my hon. Friend is cutting deeply enough with his scalpel.

§ Mr. Channon
The Government are committed to a radical review of Civil Service activities. It is not yet possible for me to make a statement, but I hope to make one in the autumn.

§ Mr. Charles R. Morris
I welcome the Minister to his new responsibilities. Will he confirm that there are over 10,000 Civil Service clerical vacancies in London? Is he aware that those vacancies have existed for a long time? Against that background, is it not meaningless to talk about a freeze on Civil Service recruitment? Is not the whole concept a political public relations sham, which hits hardest school-leavers in areas of high unemployment such as Liverpool, Newcastle, Manchester and South Wales, where recruitment is essential to the community?

§ Mr. Channon
I thank the right hon. Member for his opening remarks. More than anybody else he knows the terrible state in which he and his right hon. Friends left us by granting a massive pay Increase to the Civil Service a few days before polling day, having made no allowance, or inadequate allowance, for it in the cash limits. That is what led us to take the emergency action of imposing a recruitment ban.

§ Mr. Michael McNair-Wilson
Will the freeze affect the scientific Civil Service? Is my hon. Friend aware that at the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment at Aldermaston in my constituency there are severe staffing problems? Is he aware of the deep sense of grievance felt by scientific civil servants about the way in which their pay negotiations are being handled by his Department?

§ Mr. Channon
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for having mentioned that. I have offered the scientific grades everything that they want. I have given them the temporary link with the administrative grades for which they asked. I see no reason why they should want to strike, as I am afraid some will. I shall examine my hon. Friend's specific constituency point and write to him.