§ 1. Mr. WigleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if she will introduce a scheme to enable unemployed people to be given work at a minimum of —160 per week on environment, transport, community care and educational schemes; and if she will make a statement. [2070]
§ The Minister of State, Department for Education and Employment (Mr. Eric Forth)Our policies help unemployed people take the real jobs that the economy is creating. The approach is working: employment has risen by 210,000 in the past year and we are constantly developing new approaches to maximise our programmes' effectiveness.
§ Mr. WigleyI am disappointed at, if not surprised by, the Minister's response. I warmly welcome the fall in unemployment which was announced today, but even if every vacant job were filled, there would still be more than 80,000 people unemployed in Wales and more than 1.7 million unemployed in the United Kingdom. Would it not make better sense to pay those people to do the worthwhile work that needs to be done in terms of the environment, community care, transport and all the other sectors in which jobs are not necessarily provided by the free market, rather than leaving them to rot on the dole for years until they find work again?
§ Mr. ForthNo, not in the absolute sense that the hon. Gentleman suggests. There is a divide here between those who believe in a general make-work scheme, where the taxpayer pays people to do what is regarded as useful across the nation, and those who believe in a more targeted approach, where we try in different way to find what works in helping the long-term unemployed get back to work, including giving them useful work experience. If at the same time they can do useful work in local communities, that is all well and good, and our project work programme has demonstrated that that is possible. The difference is between those who believe in a blanket, unquestioning approach and those who believe in a targeted approach, and I think ours is the better.