§ 9. Mr. Barry FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what studies she has made of the average daily number of workers commuting into travel-to-work areas with a higher than average level of unemployment. [9423]
§ Mr. FieldA number of commuters travel from the mainland to the Isle of Wight every day despite the relatively high unemployment on the Isle of Wight. Will my hon. Friend consider including the island in a study at some future date to discover why the island's resident population are not taking the jobs that are filled by commuters from the mainland?
§ Mr. ForthMy hon. Friend asks an interesting question. It is undeniable that a large number of people are prepared to travel extraordinary distances—for example, from Southwark to Bromley—to improve their family circumstances. I have even heard of family members travelling from Islington to Hammersmith. That illustrates that the labour market is a free market, and we encourage people to move to wherever they can better themselves.
As for my hon. Friend's constituency, the only figures that I have been able to find show that local council planners in his authority estimate that, each day, 1,000 people travel off his island to work and about 500 people travel on to the island. There is a healthy awareness in the locality of my hon. Friend's constituency of the availability of jobs. My hon. Friend asked an interesting question and I shall consider his proposal as a prospective project for my Department's research budget next year.
§ Mr. Ian McCartneyThe Government have introduced a travel-to-interview scheme for travel-to-work areas. Under the scheme, unemployed workers are entitled to subsidies to help with the costs of travelling to interviews. Owing to the scheme's mismanagement, 88,000 people have been refused access to that resource. As we speak, a young gentleman called Chris Owen is 342 walking the 160 miles from Gwent to London for a job interview tomorrow. The Minister spent £74 million tarting up his headquarters with new carpets, curtains, tables and chairs, but he has refused the young man £11 to come to a job interview in London. Will the Minister review his decision, pay the £11 and, as a sign of contrition, buy the chap a new pair of shoes to compensate for the 160 miles that he has already walked? Is it not a disgrace that the Government can cause someone to lose a job simply by refusing the £11 bus fare for an interview?
§ Mr. ForthThe hon. Gentleman displays his usual ignorance of the rules of the schemes that we introduce to help people who are out of work. Opposition Members—and certainly the hon. Gentleman—do not understand that each scheme and programme to help people who are out of work has to have its rules. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman would not have it otherwise, because taxpayers' money could be misdirected. It is for individuals and experts in the Employment Service to find the best way to help each individual. If someone wants to dramatise his position by doing what the hon. Gentleman has described, that is a matter for the individual involved. I will not be accused, and I will certainly not have the Employment Service accused, of not doing everything possible to help people in reasonable circumstances to return to work. Our track record on that is extraordinarily good.