HL Deb 29 June 1984 vol 453 cc1146-8

11.16 a. m.

Lord Kilmarnock

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper.

The Question was as follows:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the number of young people actually participating in the Youth Training Scheme at the last count, and how they were distributed between Mode A and Mode B schemes.

Viscount Long

My Lords, there were about 238,000 young people in training in Great Britain under the Youth Training Scheme at the end of May. About 169,000 of these were on Mode A schemes, and 69,000 were on Mode B schemes.

Lord Kilmarnock

My Lords, I am grateful to the nobleViscount for giving me the information which his noble friend the noble Earl, Lord Gowrie, was unable to give me off the cuff in a supplementary question which I put to him on 19th June at col. 146, although I must say that I do think that he ought to have had it up his sleeve. I should like to ask the noble Viscount two questions. First, to what do the Government attribute the relatively poor take-up of a scheme designed originally for 460,000 young people? Secondly, are the Government satisfied that there are sufficient Mode B places for those who are not suitable for the Mode A schemes?

Viscount Long

My Lords, perhaps I may give the noble Lord and the House a few more figures as regards the numbers in training. In Mode A, in community projects there were 38,349 places; in workshops there were 12,107: and in information technology centres 3,051, totalling 53,507. Mode B is a different category of work altogether. There are 15,000 in B2 of Mode B—15,530—and the total in Mode B is 69,037 which, as I have already said, makes a grand total of 238,083.

Baroness Faithfull

My Lords, does my noble friend agree that a number of Mode B training centres have lately been closed? Does he agree that these training centres are run to deal with the most vulnerable young people who do not fit at this particular time into employment? Has the Manpower Services Commission followed up what has happened to those young people who are now not in employment at all and who have no training centre to attend?

Viscount Long

My Lords, it is sometimes difficult to discover why some of these young people suddenly lose interest in or leave these schemes. Therefore, it is sometimes difficult to arrive at an exact figure. My noble friend mentioned certain schemes closing down. I shall write to my noble friend in that respect because I do not know the reasons for that at this moment.

Lord Kilmarnock

My Lords, is the noble Viscount able to tell us why there has been a decline in the number to 238,000 at the end of May from the figure given by the Manpower Services Commission at the end of April of 246,000? Does not the noble Viscount agree that there has been a decline over the last two months of 8,000 people on these schemes? Can the noble Viscount give any explanation for this and would he not think that it might possibly be because of the decline in the number of Mode B places?

Viscount Long

My Lords, to answer the latter part of the noble Lord's supplementary question, that could be possible. The MSC recently carried out a small sample survey of young people who left schemes by mid-November—that is, before completing a year in training—a copy of which is in the Library. survey indicates that three months after training nearly 40 per cent. were in jobs: nearly 30 per cent. were in youth training schemes and at that point less than 25 per cent. were unemployed. Although the noble Lord wonders why there has been the decline, these results show that there is some reason for encouragement at this stage.