§ 15. Mr. Michael Clapham (Barnsley, West and Penistone)What plans he has to introduce an intermediate labour market strategy. [68886]
§ The Minister for Employment, Welfare to Work and Equal Opportunities (Mr. Andrew Smith)Intermediate labour market initiatives already play a part in the Government's overall employment policy and are especially helpful for people who are particularly disadvantaged in the open jobs market. Government funding already contributes to a number of successful projects up and down the country, and that will be extended through the recently announced employment zones.
§ Mr. ClaphamI thank my right hon. Friend for that answer. He knows that there is much male unemployment 462 in the former steel and mining communities of south Yorkshire. We are talking about men in their 40s and 50s. Intermediate labour markets are one way of reintroducing such people to the formal labour market. Does his Department intend to evaluate some of the local community business projects within a regional framework?
§ Mr. SmithVery much so; we have been surveying experience of intermediate labour market projects both in this country and abroad. As soon as we have the results, they will be published—within the next month or two, I hope. The new deal 25-plus pilots have a specific remit to provide extra help for older unemployed people to get them back into work. As a result of the strategic responsibilities of the regional development agencies and work under the coalfields communities initiative, I expect more programmes to help precisely the people whom my hon. Friend described. They have had a rough deal in the past and deserve help from the Government. I hope that they will get it.
§ Mr. Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley)What role will deregulation play in the Government's strategy? It is not only the 48-hour directive or the minimum wage; what role will there be for cutting bureaucracy, rules and regulations for businesses so that they can employ more people? When will Ministers start properly to think through the implications of directives for the labour market and their impact in this country before they sign up to them?
§ Mr. SmithThis Government, not the previous one, have had written into the European employment guidelines a commitment not only to examine new European proposals to ensure that we minimise the regulatory burden and generate jobs, but to re-examine the proposals previously signed up to, including those signed up to by the Conservative Government. As part of our employment generation programmes, such as enterprise development in employment zones, we are applying the benefits of the cuts in bureaucracy and regulation that my colleagues in the Department of Trade and Industry are examining to stimulate the formation of new businesses.
Moreover, it is this Government who, unlike our predecessors, are developing self-employment opportunities through the new deal, which people would have been denied under the Conservatives because of that Government's unreadiness to provide effective help into self-employment and business development for unemployed people.