§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will compare the amounts spent under Government auspices on industrial training and retraining in Great Britain, Germany and France in each of the last five years.
§ Mr. Harold WalkerI am advised by the Manpower Services Commission that no true comparison can be made from the available information, which is given below. The figures for Great Britain relate only to expenditure on training by Government Departments, which from 1st April 1974 has been taken over by the commission; they do not cover training given under the education system or training in industry. In Great Britain, the primary responsibility for training lies with employers, who pay for it directly or through industrial training boards. The48W boards are financed by a levy on employers and make their own grants. In France and Germany, the Government themselves administer such levy/grant schemes. This is reflected in the figures for France and Germany below, which also include expenditure on technical education that would in this country be carried on the educational votes.
The available information is as follows:
(£ million) 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 Great Britain … 24 30 36 50 60 Germany … — 91 125 190 300 France … — 80 115 150 — The figures for Great Britain cover financial years 1969–70 etc. The figures for France and Germany are approximate only. I regret that figures for France and Germany for 1969 and a figure for France for 1973 are not available.