HC Deb 26 February 1991 vol 186 cc782-3
5. Mr. Andrew Mitchell

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement about the progress of the training credit pilots.

Mr. Howard

I was delighted to present the first training credits to young people in Suffolk on 14 February. In the coming months some 45,000 young school leavers throughout the pilot areas will have the opportunity to use training credits to obtain approved training of their choice.

Mr. Mitchell

Are not training credits an innovative and extremely individual approach towards training and very welcome because of that? Do they not mark an enormous contrast with the tired and outdated policies rewrapped by the Labour party which depend, as ever, on compulsion and coercion?

Mr. Howard

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The Labour party has learnt nothing. Its reaction is always the same—reach for a quango, impose a new tax and introduce a dose of compulsion.

Ms. Armstrong

Does the Minister not realise that training credit money is coming out of other money for training, which has been so savagely cut that many people—certainly those served by the Durham TEC—will lose any chance of training and that the opportunity to link training with employers is diminishing due to rising unemployment? In areas such as north-west Durham the position is critical. It is estimated that the cuts will mean up to 1,000 more people unemployed by the end of March. Can the Minister tell us how the additional money that he has announced today will save the opportunities for those people to continue in training?

Mr. Howard

The hon. Lady is entirely wrong about the funding of training credits, which included a substantial element of new money. I am sure that she will find that the additional £120 million that I announced today will go a long way towards increasing the resources that the Durham training and enterprise council will have available to meet the training needs of the county.

Mr. Favell

Does my right hon. and learned Friend recall how the Labour party objected when the Government introduced the requirement for young people to report for training if they wished to claim income support—in other words, income support was to be reduced if they did not train? Is he therefore disturbed by the present proposals that the youth training scheme should be abolished?

Mr. Howard

I never know quite what to make of the various suggestions that come from the Labour party about their proposals. Yesterday a new document was produced, which represented yet another change in their proposals. It is such a moving picture that I find it quite bewildering.