HC Deb 06 December 1988 vol 143 cc165-6
10. Mr. Ian Bruce

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement on the development of the employment service.

Mr. Fowler

In the six months since April the employment service placed over 75,000 unemployed people in jobs, including over 120,000 long-term unemployed. It has also introduced new procedures, such as more effective interviews with those making new claims for benefit. Since last October, when we established the employment service, unemployment has fallen by 504,000 overall, with particularly steep falls in long-term unemployment.

Mr. Bruce

I thank my right hon. Friend for his wonderful reply. I hope that he will express the House's appreciation of the work done by civil servants in the Department. I wonder whether he is progressing well with obtaining agency status for the employment service? Are there plans for the re-amalgamation of the benefit service and the employment service, as is happening in Weymouth at the moment? Are there also plans to amalgamate the Department of Social Security offices and possibly, at long last, to transfer many of these services to the private sector?

Mr. Fowler

The plan on which we are working is aimed at improving even further the management effectiveness of the employment service. To that effect, we are considering creating one of the new agencies.

Mr. Nellist

How will the development of the employment service be aided by the attacks on the rights of 16 to 18-year-old workers? Having seen the abolition of the wages councils two years ago reduce the level of wages for that group, but not produce the 50,000 to 100,000 new jobs that the Government promised in July 1985, is not the single purpose of the provisions announced by the Secretary of State to increase the exploitation of school leavers, which will inevitably lead to an increase in injuries and deaths? If the Secretary of State is really concerned-[Interruption.]

Mr. Speaker

Order. The hon. Gentleman is asking many questions at great length.

Mr. Nellist

Why has the Secretary of State never signed the Employment of Children Act 1973?

Mr. Fowler

The purpose of our policies and of what we announced yesterday is to increase the employment prospects of young people. We want to reduce unemployment. I should have thought that the hon. Gentleman would welcome the fact that between 1986 and this year unemployment for 16 to 19-year-olds has fallen by no less than 62 per cent. That is the record of the Government.