Labour Statistics (Hansard, 6 March 1991)

§ 11. Mr. Ron Brown
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many people are currently unemployed in Scotland; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Lang
In January 1991, seasonally adjusted unemployment in Scotland was 201,300. Despite the small upturn during the past quarter, unemployment in Scotland has fallen by almost 140,000. It is now 40 per cent. lower than four years ago.

§ Mr. Brown
Does the Secretary of State realise, despite his phony figures, that Scotland has been devastated by unemployment? In my constituency, for example, GEC Ferranti has closed a plant and is paying off many of its employees, and the same thing is happening at the Rank Hovis McDougall Caledonian mill. On top of that ICI is closing, or intends to close, Scottish Agricultural Industries, which produces fertilizers, because of Government opposition to the Kemira takeover bid. That is clearly a tragedy for the Scottish economy and for the local economy of Leith. Will the Secretary of State ask his Tory friends at ICI to hold fire in the meantime? Will he meet me to discuss the local problems of my constituents who clearly want to defend local skills and local industries, which the right hon. Gentleman's Government do not intend to do?

§ Mr. Lang
The hon. Gentleman cannot have heard the answer that I gave to the main question when I explained that unemployment, far from rising, had fallen by 140,000 in the past four years. In the year to September 1990, manufacturing employment in Scotland increased by 9,000, and the civilian work force has increased by 200,000 over the past three years. In the hon. Gentleman's constituency, unemployment has fallen by no less than 43 per cent. in the past four years, with a total fall of 3,000.

§ Mr. David Marshall
On behalf of Glasgow Labour Members, I wrote to the Secretary of State seeking a meeting with him to discuss unemployment in the city of Glasgow, where more than 48,000 people were idle in January. Does he accept that his reply, which was received today and stated that the level of unemployment in the Glasgow travel-to-work area—not the city of Glasgow —is better than that of many other areas in Scotland and that the time is not appropriate to meet us to discuss unemployment, is an unbelievably callous answer? Just what level does unemployment have to reach in the city of Glasgow before the right hon. Gentleman will agree to meet us? Is he still not aware that the eight constituencies with the highest levels of unemployment in Scotland are all in Glasgow?

§ Mr. Lang
Of course unemployment in Glasgow is still too high, but the hon. Gentleman should acknowledge that it has fallen substantially in the past four years—by between 2,000 and 3,000 in every constituency in Glasgow. That is reflected in the overall figures which show, as I have said, that unemployment has fallen by almost 140,000 in the past four years. What I look forward to seeing in Glasgow, as elsewhere throughout Scotland, is Scottish Enterprise and the new local enterprise companies getting down to tackle the problems in each local enterprise company area and going about their business with their budgets which, in total, including Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, exceed £0.5 billion, to tackle the problems in ways which relate directly to the individual problems of each area.

§ Mr. Holt
I wonder whether my right hon. Friend heard the reply that was recently given in the House by our right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when I asked a question about the activities of the Monopolies and Mergers Commission, which are leading directly to the closure of the factory in the constituency of the hon. Member for Edinburgh, Leith (Mr. Brown), and which could have a knock-on effect in my constituency by bringing to an end the viability of the only potash mine in this country. That would adversely affect the country as a whole, our balance of payments and unemployment in both Scotland and England. It is still not too late to pull this one round, but it would mean a Secretary of State who arrogantly said that no Minister had ever gone against the recommendations of an MMC report for the first time standing up, being a man in his own right and refusing to accept the MMC's recommendations.

§ Mr. Lang
My hon. Friend may wish to pursue that with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, but I am sure that he will agree that one of the merits of the MMC is its arm's-length method of operation. The MMC looked closely at all the implications of the decision before reaching its conclusions.

§ Mr. Worthington
All Opposition Members are deeply cynical about the way in which the Secretary of State uses dates. I remind him that the Government have been in power for 12 years, not four, and that unemployment has mounted over that time and is rising again. As we enter a recession which is affecting Scotland, why are local enterprise companies being faced with a cut in their budgets which means that less will be spent in each area in Scotland this year on the functions of the Scottish Development Agency and the Training Agency than was spent last year? Why is it that in Lanarkshire, of all places, when a bid was put in for £50 million, in real terms only £30 million was allocated?

§ Mr. Lang
With regard to the budget for Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, as I pointed out to the hon. Gentleman, whose figures are largely speculative and widely inaccurate for the most part, the combined budget of the two new bodies will exceed £500 million. On training we are spending about six times what the Labour Government spent 12 years ago. Far from the Government having a bad record on unemployment, we have seen a dramatic improvement in the last few years as we got away from the after-effects of the Socialist Government and all the damage that they did to the Scottish economy. Unemployment in Scotland is now below the EC average. Long-term unemployment continues to fall; it fell by 12 per cent. last year—the sharpest fall anywhere in the United Kingdom—as a result of the improvements in the economy brought about by the Conservative Government.