HC Deb 30 March 1981 vol 2 c15
18. Mr. Blackburn

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what steps he is taking to encourage the revival of craft industries.

The Ministerfor the Arts (Mr. Paul Channon)

My concern as Minister for the Arts is to develop the role of the artist-craftsman, so I give a grant to the Crafts Council which supports craft activities and individual craftsmen, but neither the council nor I have any general responsibility for the craft industries.

Mr. Blackburn

Does my right hon. Friend appreciate the value, commercially and culturally, of the continuance of craft industries both in urban and rural districts? Will he give the House an assurance that a more positive role will be played by those industries, because they are part of our priceless heritage?

Mr. Channon

I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. A great deal of support is given to the Crafts Council, significantly more than in the past. I am glad that it has a small exhibition gallery, which it plans to enlarge, and I hope that that will be of great value to individual craftsmen.

Mr. Faulds

Is it not regrettable that the right hon. Gentleman's right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State rejected on 4 March my suggestion that he should launch an initiative to encourage the training of school leavers in the traditional crafts, and the more so because he gave as his ground the reason that market forces would work in this area? Will the right hon. Gentleman look at the suggestion a little more sympathetically than did his right hon. and learned Friend?

Mr. Channon

That is a matter for my right hon. and learned Friend. I shall look at what the hon. Gentleman has said, but it is primarily a matter for my right hon. and learned Friend and not for me.