§ 7. Mr. IllsleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many redundancies have been declared in the Barnsley travel-to-work area from October 1992 to date.
§ Mr. McLoughlinFigures for redundancies are not available below those at regional level.
§ Mr. IllsleyIs the Minister aware that, since 1990, unemployment in my constituency has increased by 44 per cent. and the level of vacancies has decreased by 60 per cent? Since October 1992, when we had the announcement of pit closures, we are likely to see 6,000 further redundancies in mining and related industries—the Houghton and Grimethorpe collieries closed in the past fortnight. It is not time that the Government started creating jobs, instead of throwing money at training and enterprise councils to train people for jobs that are not there? Could we not start by reversing some of the pit closure programme?
§ Mr. McLoughlinI draw a number of points from the three questions asked by the hon. Gentleman. He used the base of 1990. If one uses the base of July 1986 for this constituency, unemployment was 6,217. In April 1993, unemployment was 4,329, which is a reduction of more than 30 per cent. I thought that even the hon. Gentleman would have recognised that. We will take no lectures from Labour Members about pit closures—[Interruption.] They may not like it, but they will hear it. Between 1964 and 1970, 277 coal mines closed.
§ Mr. DobsonDoes the Minister recognise that most of the people in Barnsley who have lost their jobs and been made redundant have benefited under the statutory redundancy scheme? Can he confirm that the Government are considering abolishing that scheme because they regard it as a burden on business?
§ Mr. McLoughlinHere we go again—here is another scare story. We will have quite a few of them over the coming weeks. If the hon. Gentleman starts to believe everything that he reads, he will be confused when my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer makes the statement that he intends to make.