JOB OPPORTUNITIES FOR SCHOOL-LEAVERS (Hansard, 1 July 1980)

§ Lord ORR-EWING
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

§ Lord LYELL
My Lords, the job prospects for school-leavers, as for all other age groups, depend on the success of the Government's policies designed to reduce inflation and create a climate for investment and enterprise, which in turn will lead to increased economic activity and lower unemployment. The Government do not themselves create job opportunities, but the Manpower Services Commission's youth opportunities programme provides work preparation and training schemes for the young unemployed, which have proved successful in helping young people into regular employment. This programme has been expanded to provide about 25 per cent. more places in the year 1980–81, and this will enable the commission to continue to operate its undertakings to unemployed school-leavers and to young people who have been unemployed for 12 months or more. Also, the temporary short-time working compensation scheme and the job release scheme will contribute towards reducing unemployment and helping hard-hit groups, such as school-leavers.

§ Lord ORR-EWING
My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that helpful and constructive reply. Would he bear in mind, and perhaps reconsider in this very difficult matter, whether we ought not to introduce some sort of civic service as a contribution to the benefit of young people and the benefit of the nation, giving young people options to serve either in the environmental services or in the social services, at one end of the spectrum, and perhaps in the police as a reserve, receiving a bit of training there, or even in the military services, at the other end of the spectrum? Is this not a contribution which they could usefully make and be the better for it, the nation being also the gainer?

§ Lord LYELL
My Lords, that is a very interesting suggestion. It is one of many that is being considered by the Government; but I cannot stress too strongly that the Government cannot by themselves create the sound economic growth which is going to bring about more real jobs as opposed to more merely temporary jobs.

§ Baroness GAITSKELL
My Lords, may I ask the Government whether it would not be more accurate, in dealing with this matter, to delete one word from the Question—the word "further" in the phrase "further proposals" when asking the Government's intentions in this matter?

§ Lord LYELL
My Lords, I hope the noble Baroness will not think that the Government are responsible for my noble friend's handwriting, but the Answer I have given is as far as the Government would want to go, and I believe the proposals are very firm and constructive.

§ Lord CLEDWYN of PENRHOS
My Lords, would not the most effective contribution to the community in the form of civic service, and to industry as well, be to extend apprenticeship schemes in essential industry? Could the noble Lord say what plans the Government have to this end, and how much the Government are now spending through the MSC on the granting of apprenticeships to young people?

§ Lord LYELL
My Lords, of course the Government will do everything they can to assist apprenticeship schemes and other 224 methods of encouraging young people to gain proper and lasting work. The noble Lord was wondering what was being done. The youth opportunities programme is to be expanded by 25 per cent.in the year 1980–81, and as part of the Manpower Services Commission's overall budget the expenditure on the youth opportunities programme for the year 1980–81 is £183 million, compared with expenditure of £124 million in the year 1979–80. So I think the noble Lord will see the order of increase.

§ Lord SHINWELL
My Lords, is it not unrealistic to ask the Government to provide job opportunities when the Government freely admit—and there are valid reasons for their attitude—that their policy is directed to creating unemployment and that it cannot be avoided? Although the situation is deplorable, why do we not face the facts and be realistic about this? Something has happened which is unfortunate and a large number of young people have to suffer. It cannot be helped.

§ Lord LYELL
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Shinwell, made most of my answer for me. He says that it is unfortunate. I believe that the noble Lord, Lord Shinwell, is with us in that. The Government are facing the truth. I have already said that it is not for the Government to create jobs, but to seek, as they are seeking, to create a climate where lasting and beneficial jobs may be created and may thrive.

Lord HUNT
My Lords, while appreciating the objective of the Government in creating a situation in which there will be employment, I should like to ask the noble Lord whether the Government are aware of the seriousness and—and I use the words advisedly—the potentially explosive nature of the situation as regards unemployment among young school-leavers, and particularly among young black school-leavers? If the noble Lord is not fully aware, may I ask whether he will cross the river and pay a visit to the borough of Lambeth and talk to some of the young black school-leavers in that borough?

§ Lord LYELL
My Lords, the Government do care about young people all over Britain who are unemployed. I am aware 225 —and I have certain evidence at least of two visits, not necessarily to the particular area described by the noble Lord—that my noble friend Lord Gowrie has paid visits to London and to the North, among other places, to just such areas of particular need among young people; and we are keeping this in mind all the time.

§ Lord GISBOROUGH
My Lords, will the noble Lord agree that where manpower reductions have had to be made in public services, it is extremely unfortunate that the distress has fallen upon the young entry rather than upon those workers in the public services whose excessive wage claims have been the cause of the whole problem '?

§ Lord LYELL
My Lords, I think that that is a little wide of the Question. The Government are taking action under the job release scheme and under the temporary short-time working compensation scheme, both of which schemes are applicable to the situation.

§ Lord ROSS of MARNOCK
My Lords, is the noble Lord aware that the figures for unemployment announced a short time ago show that in Scotland the figures are higher than they have been since the 1930s, that at the end of last week thousands more young people left school and that they will have little confidence in the kind of statement that is being made by the noble Lord today? Is it any wonder that the Tory candidate lost his deposit and could get only 700 votes in a seat in the centre of Glasgow?

§ Lord LYELL
My Lords, those of us who read the Scottish papers understand that the Labour Party did not have much to crow about at the Central Glasgow election. The noble Lord is correct. Unemployment is at a very grave level in Scotland. This is one of the reasons why the Government are increasing their expenditure on the youth opportunities programme just for the school-leavers that the noble Lord mentioned. The Government are doing everything they can to assist in this grave situation. We realise it and we are taking action.

§ Baroness MASHAM of ILTON
My Lords, may I ask the noble Lord whether he will consider the plight of the severely 226 disabled school-leavers? Would he consider—and I notice that the noble Baroness, Lady Young, has fled—that the severely disabled people might extend their school period as they do in many EEC countries?

§ Lord LYELL
My Lords, that is an interesting suggestion. I think it is a little wide of the Question, but I am delighted to take on board the comments made by the noble Baroness and I will pass them on to my noble friend Lady Young.

Lord BRUCE of DONINGTON
My Lords, is the noble Lord aware of the repeated utterances of his right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Industry that unemployment is a self-inflicted injury? Will he explain how school-leavers can inflict unemployment upon themselves? Will he give some indication as to when this Government, in whom public confidence is rapidly diminishing, intend to take up their responsibility to school-leavers who, through no fault of their own, are unemployed?

§ Lord DERWENT
My Lords, is this really the time for a debate?

§ Lord LYELL
My Lords, if I may reply to the noble Lord, Lord Bruce—and I am grateful for the support from my noble friend—I have said three times that the Government do not create employment. I think that the noble Lord, Lord Bruce, certainly understood that and he realises that. I am sure that the noble Lord will appreciate that the matters he attributed to my right honourable friend the Secretary of State may be relevant; but I would remind the noble Lord that these matters of young people entering jobs and of their respective wage rates are very largely a matter for collective bargaining. Certainly, the wages of both young people and other people in employment are very carefully considered by the employers and the unions, with particular relevance to the possibility of giving young people opportunities to enter industry.

§ Lord ORR-EWING
My Lords, while congratulating the Government on extending by £50 million the expenditure available to help get jobs for young people, would they consider as a matter of urgency convening a conference with 227 Church leaders and youth leaders from all parts of the country—

§ Lord ORR-EWING
My Lords, and why not?—a conference to see what can be done? Let the Government come forward with constructive suggestions as to what can be done to provide useful employment for these young people who otherwise, as was rightly said by noble Lords opposite, could be frustrated and become a great cause of anxiety for the nation in future!

§ Lord LYELL
My Lords, that is an interesting suggestion. I shall pass it on to my noble friend the Minister, but I would stress that we believe the youth opportunities programme is the best and most relevant source of aid in this continuing problem of young people's unemployment.