HC Deb 23 June 1921 vol 143 c1572W
Lieut.-Colonel HILDER

asked the Minister of Pension whether, in view of the excellent work done by the Lord Roberts' Memorial Workshops in training disabled ex-service men, the Government will consider the advisability of extending to those workshops the same financial allowances as are given to Government training centres, since the Government has already recognised, in connection with the voluntary hospitals, that to help private charitable work of this description is sound economy when the cost is compared with that of Government institutions?

Brigadier-General COLVIN

asked the Minister of Labour whether, having regard to training of disabled ex-service men in carpentering and basket-work that has been accomplished in Lord Roberts' Memorial Workshops established throughout the country, he will recommend that a grant of 30s. a week per man will be made for the next two years; and whether without such assistance most of these workshops will have to be closed, and the training of several hundred men left incomplete?

Dr. MACNAMARA

I have been asked to reply. I will, if I may answer these questions together. With regard to men who are being trained, a certain number of men who have been placed in training by the Ministry of Labour at the Lord Roberts' Memorial Workshops are already in receipt of the usual training allowances under the Government scheme for the Industrial Training of Disabled ex-Service Men. With regard, however, to men employed by the Lord Roberts' Memorial Workshops, the question of giving some temporary Government assistance, not exceeding £25 a man for a limited number of men, has been under consideration, and an offer on these lines has been made to the Workshops. It is conditional generally on the latter obtaining sufficient public support to secure financial solvency.

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