§ 4. Mr. HardyTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many officials of the Manpower Services Commission are directly involved in the supervision of employment training; and what is the average number of schemes and participants for which each such officer is responsible.
§ Mr. NichollsAround 1,500 staff in the Training Agency's area offices are involved in the administration of employment training. These staff are engaged in a range of duties, including checking claims and authorising payments, monitoring schemes and general office duties. Taking into account these different functions, on average there is about one member of staff per training agent or manager, or one member of staff per 130 trainees.
§ Mr. HardyThat scarcely suggests that there are sufficient resources to provide a proper response when there are grounds for serious concern about any particular scheme, as is the case with one scheme in the metropolitan borough of Rotherham, about which my hon. Friends and I have been in correspondence with the Minister.
§ Mr. NichollsI do not accept that the figures show any such thing. I can only repeat the offer that I made to the hon. Gentleman as long ago as May—that if he and his hon. Friends wish to see me to discuss a particular scheme I shall be more than happy to do so. Certainly his views would not be shared by his own metropolitan borough council—a Labour-controlled council which is involved in employment training as a training manager and provides 175 places.
§ Mr. BaldryDoes not employment training provide high-quality training for those in the work force or the potential work force who might otherwise find it difficult to obtain skills training? It is not the case that 18 per cent. of those on employment training have literacy or numeracy difficulties, 11 per cent. come from ethnic minorities, 12 per cent. have physical disabilities and 50 per cent. come from inner cities? Those groups need to be targeted to bring them into the labour force. Instead of carping, the Labour party should be applauding these initiatives.
§ Mr. NichollsMy hon. Friend has it exactly. At a time when unemployment is coming down dramatically—in the constituency of the hon. Member for Wentworth (Mr. Hardy), for example, it has fallen by 27.7 per cent. in the past year—those still unemployed find it harder to get back to work. The whole climate of employment training and the various waivers of eligibility criteria are designed to ensure that those most in need of help obtain the help that they need.