HC Deb 06 July 1982 vol 27 cc141-2
12. Mr. Craigen

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what arrangements have been made for the process of consultation on the report of the employment services division Rayner scrutiny on the general employment service in Great Britain.

Mr. Peter Morrison

The report was published on 3 June 1982 by the Manpower Services Commission with an invitation to interested organisations and individuals to comment on its conclusions and recommendations by 9 July 1982.

Mr. Craigen

Why has there been such a hole-in-corner approach to the publication of this document, which has such damaging prospects for the jobcentre network?

Does the Minister subscribe to the implicit view of the authors that it is not worth bothering about the placement in employment of unskilled and semi-skilled workers in future and that they should be left to their own devices?

Mr. Morrison

There has not been a hole-in-corner approach to the publication of the document. The Manpower Services Commission has made it available to whomsoever wanted it. It has been available in the Vote Office and has been given to the Clerk of the Select Committee on Employment. The matter rests at the moment with the Manpower Services Commission and the Government await its conclusions before making their judgment.

Mr. Timothy Smith

As the report makes recommendations which, if implemented, would lead to savings of more than £10 million, will my hon. Friend ensure that in so far as he agrees with them they are implemented as soon as possible?

Mr. Morrison

I certainly wish to see the jobcentre network run in as cost-effective a way as is possible. That is why my right hon. Friend the Member for Lowestoft (Mr. Prior), when he was Secretary of State for Employment, suggested the review to the Manpower Services Commission.

Mr. Barry Jones

Is the Minister not ashamed that the MSC's employment services division has already sustained a staff cut of 1,700 and a budgetary cut of £60 million? Is it not the case that the disabled, the long-term unemployed and the young blacks will bear the brunt of cuts in jobcentres?

Mr. Morrison

I am certainly not ashamed. I should be ashamed if the jobcentres were not run on a cost-effective basis. The point of the review is to ensure that they are.

Mr. Stokes

Is my hon. Friend aware that, generally speaking, private enterprise can run an employment agency far more efficiently and at far lower cost than a State undertaking? The sooner they are all taken over by private enterprise the better.

Mr. Morrison

There is a place for the private employment agency alongside the public employment service, which should be run on as cost-effective a basis as possible.