HC Deb 16 February 1993 vol 219 cc116-7
2. Mr. Nigel Jones

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what steps she is taking to improve the training opportunities for the young unemployed; and if she will make a statement.

Mrs. Gillian Shephard

I shall be extending the use of credits, which will give more and more young people greater opportunities to gain the skills that they and employers need for the 1990s.

Mr. Jones

I am grateful for that answer. Does the Minister share the concern of many of my constituents, who think that rising youth unemployment is one of the main reasons for the rocketing crime figures? Why do not the Government increase substantially the amount of money that they spend on youth unemployment, in a week when employment figures throughout Britain will reach 3 million?

Mrs. Shephard

Due to the larger numbers of young people staying on at school we have a large amount of resources to spend on youth training. All training and enterprise councils have the resources to meet the guarantee and I have left them in no doubt that that is what they are expected to do.

Mr. Patrick Thompson

Will my right hon. Friend confirm that it is the Government's stated policy and intention that every young person over the age of 16 should be in either education or full-time training, unless they have a job? Will she do what she can to improve the way in which information is gathered for statistics involving young people who are seeking jobs or who are in training? Finally, will she confirm that, under the Government, about 250,000 young people are undergoing training, compared with only 7,000 under the Labour Government in 1979?

Mrs. Shephard

About 291,000 young people are training under youth training and currently, of those, more than three quarters find jobs or go on to further education. There was a problem with the exchange of information between careers services, training providers and TECs in the summer, which was why I announced then the improved arrangements. I am continuing to monitor them closely.

Mr. Tony Lloyd

Is the Secretary of State aware that if we were to use the same definition for the young unemployed as the Conservative party uses for the Young Conservatives, everyone who is out of work would be included in that category?

On a serious note, there are now more than 900,000 people aged between 16 and 24 who are out of work. That is not the lost generation, but the abandoned generation. It has been abandoned by a Government who have no policies and no compassion. The Secretary of State recently rightly talked about the abolition of the 21-hour rule. Will she ensure that every young person between 16 and 24 has the right to go into either full-time education and training or part-time education and training and still draw benefit?

Mrs. Shephard

As the hon. Gentleman knows, unemployment is not an option for young people aged between 16 and 17. They either remain in full-time education—there has been a welcome 25 per cent. Increase in the numbers going into further education—find a job, or take up a guaranteed youth training place. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will also welcome the fact that large numbers of 18 to 21-year-olds are going into higher education and provision has been made for them. On the issue of benefit eligibility, I can only repeat what my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister said at Question Time a couple of weeks ago—that a wide range of options is being considered to help unemployed people to use their time productively. I shall make an announcement in a few weeks' time.

Mr. Lester

When my right hon. Friend is considering that wide range of options, will she blow the dust off the original community programme that we had in 1980? It was a successful programme as a follow-on to training, particularly for young poeple, and it had a good record of placing people in jobs. We should not rewrite the book when we already have a good book on the shelf.

Mrs. Shephard

I know of my hon. Friend's great interest in the matter. A large number of elements of the old community programme have been retained in employment action. My hon. Friend is right to draw to the attention of the House the excellence of many features of that programme, which is one of the options that we are currently considering.