HC Deb 19 October 1993 vol 230 cc129-30
1. Mr. Pike:

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what discussions he has had with jobcentres in Lancashire on low pay.

The Minister of State, Department of Employment (Mr. Michael Forsyth):

None, Madam.

Mr. Pike

Will the Minister recognise that it is an absolute scandal that in a survey of five jobcentres in Lancashire in September 1992, 45.8 per cent. of jobs on offer paid less than £99 per week? Will not he recognise that the Government's abolition of the wages councils has increased the number of jobs offering less than £3 an hour? Is not it time that the Government started to give workers in the country fair pay for a fair day's work?

Mr. Forsyth

If the hon. Gentleman had gone up the road to the jobcentre in Victoria earlier in the summer, he would have seen a job advertised at no pay at all, placed by his hon. and learned Friend the Chairman of the Select Committee on Employment. That job was to work for two months with expenses and resulted in an individual being placed in full-time paid work. That is the job of the Employment Service and I should have thought that the hon. Gentleman would congratulate it on the splendid work that it is doing.

Dame Elaine Kellett-Bowman

My hon. Friend will be glad to know that many fewer citizens of Lancaster will require the services of the jobcentre, because unemployment fell by 179 last month, which takes us below the national average and below the regional average.

Mr. Forsyth

My hon. Friend is right, not only in what she says about her constituency, but in what is happening up and down the country. Unemployment in the past month fell in every region, and Britain is leading Europe out of recession. We are the only country in Europe, apart from Ireland, that has seen falling unemployment this year. That is entirely due to the policies pursued by the Government, which are opposed by Opposition Members.

Mr. Dobson

Referring to the points made by my hon. Friend the Member for Burnley (Mr. Pike), how can the Minister justify a situation in which many jobs in Lancashire pay less per hour than the £2.50 a minute that is paid to the boss of the privatised North West Water plc?

Mr. Forsyth

As anyone who is involved in helping unemployed people find jobs knows, for those people who have been out of work for a long time it is most important that they should have an opportunity to have a job that will give them experience. The hon. Gentleman knows perfectly well that when people are on low pay, family credit and other benefits ensure that incomes are maintained. The truth of the matter is that if the hon. Gentleman had his way with a national minumum wage, 2 million people would be thrown on the dole. The people of Britain do not want that, which is why he is sitting on the Opposition Benches.

Mr. Pike

On a point of order, Madam Speaker. In view of the unsatisfactory and insulting nature of that reply, I shall seek to raise matters on the Adjournment.

Mr. Thurnham

Does my right hon. Friend agree that the key to higher pay—

Madam Speaker

Order. I am very remiss. That point of order closes the question. I overlooked that.