§ 8. Mrs. Shirley Williamsasked the Secretary of State for Employment what proportion of young people who 697 completed youth opportunities programme courses between one year and six months previously entered (a) full-time employment and (b) further education.
§ Mr. SpeakerNo. 8, Mrs. Shirley Williams.
§ Mr. GummerInformation is not yet available—
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. The Minister must not answer before the question is asked.
§ Mrs. Shirley WilliamsNo. 8, Sir.
§ Mr. GummerInformation is not yet available on this particular group. The most recent—(Interruption] —national survey of those who joined youth opportunities programme schemes—
§ Mrs. WilliamsOn a point of order, Mr. Speaker. I regret that I am completely unable to hear the Minister's reply owing to barracking from across the Floor.
§ Mr. GummerInformation is not yet available on this particular group. The most recent national survey of those who joined youth opportunities programme schemes between April and June 1981 shows that about 40 per cent. of young people subsequently found employment and a further 10 per cent. went into further education or training.
§ Mrs. WilliamsIs the Minister aware that on 23 April 1979 the Prime Minister said in Darlington—[HON. MEMBERS: "Reading".]—
We Tories believe in policies that will create real jobs—not just paying youngsters to do artificial jobs without a future".In view of the Prime Minister's remarks at Darlington, will the Minister now redeem the Prime Minister's promise by representing to his right hon. and learned Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer that real jobs should be created by putting £3 billion to £4 billion into public investment and not into tax cuts, which will create only one job for every four that public investment creates? We need real jobs, not artificial ones.
§ Mr. GummerThe right hon. Lady does not meet the need to create real jobs by asking for general reflation by putting money into public expenditure. The right hon. Lady knows perfectly well that the only way to produce real jobs is to produce goods and services that people want to buy. That that has to be repeated again and again from the Dispatch Box, even to representatives of the Social Democratic party, shows the people of Darlington and elsewhere that if they want jobs the only party that will ever produce them is the Conservative party.
§ Mr. NeedhamIs not one of the reasons why we have such a high level of youth unemployment that adequate schemes for training young people were not introduced early enough and certainly were not introduced by the right hon. Member for Crosby (Mrs. Williams) when she had some authority in the matter? If the right hon. Lady had done something more we should not have such high numbers as we now have.
§ Mr. GummerIt would be easier to congratulate the right hon. Member for Crosby (Mrs. Williams) had she managed to do something about training during the many years that she held office in a Labour Government. The new training scheme has been needed in Britain for many years and should be seen as a major step forward in the training of young people.
§ Mr. Barry JonesBearing in mind the growing and genuine fears of a major shortfall in training places this year, is it not reprehensible that in April the Government plan to cut from £18 to £15—a 16 per cent cut—the supplementary benefit of 16 and 17-year-olds living at home? Is not the nation entitled to be sceptical of the Government's competence when we read in The Sunday Times of a plan to dump unemployed teenagers into military service because the Government cannot find them jobs in civilian life?
§ Mr. GummerThe hon. Gentleman must do better than that. He knows perfectly well that there is no truth in any reports about dumping people into military service—
§ Mr. Barry JonesAnswer the question.
§ Mr. GummerIf several questions are asked I shall answer them—
§ Mr. Barry JonesAnswer the question.
§ Mr. SpeakerOrder. Will the hon. Gentleman stop tapping the table. It irritates me.
§ Mr. GummerThe hon. Gentleman asks whether the Government have plans to dump young people into military training. The Government have no such plans, and when the hon. Gentleman gives the Government credit for the largest training scheme that has been produced in the history of Britain, he will have a right to ask such questions.