§ Although the basic work permit scheme will continue unchanged, I have concluded that it is now time to bring to an end the special arrangements for the hotel and catering industry and to bring that industry entirely within the general work permit scheme. Permits will be available only for work at skill standards compatible with those at present applied within the work permit scheme generally and for workers meeting those standards. Consultations are now taking place with both sides of the industry to establish appropriate skill standards.
§ No applications will be accepted under the special arrangements after 30th March 1979. Issues will continue to be made, where the usual conditions are satisfied, until the limit of 1,500 permits announced for 1978 has been reached but only for work and workers regarded as skilled under those arrangements and subject to similar allocation arrangements in relation to individual establishments as applied for skilled workers in 1978. For applications made after 30th March 1979 the general work permit arrangements will apply. I should add that under these arrangements the employer is expected to notify the details of his vacancy 181W to the nearest local office of the Manpower Services Commission's employment service division and to allow three weeks for a suitable worker to be found ; he is also expected to advertise the vacancy in the press or appropriate trade journals.
§ The special arrangements were not intended to be permanent and this has been made clear on a number of occasions, most recently on 16th December 1977 when I announced in the House the arrangements for 1978 and on 5th May this year in my reply to a Question by my hon. Friend the Member for Aberdare (Mr. Evans). When the Select Committee on Race Relations and Immigration recommended that the quota of permits available for the industry should be further reduced and a date given for its termination, the Government reaffirmed their intention to terminate the special arrangements, including the quota, as soon as it was reasonable and practicable to do so.
§ The limit has been progressively reduced from 8,500 in 1975 to 1,500 in 1978. Permits for exceptionally highly skilled workers have, however, been available outside the limit. This year, just under 1,000 permits have been issued under the special arrangements up to the end of November. Of these, about 600 were for skilled workers. By comparison, in the latest 12-month period for which figures are available, some 47,000 people have been placed in the industry by the Manpower Services Commission in the same range of jobs.
§ Although employment in the industry continues to rise, unemployment, even among the more skilled workers, keeps in line generally with the national trend for unemployment in industry as a whole. I am aware of the changing requirements of the industry arising from developments in food preparation and in the type of service offered and I have also taken into account the advice of the Manpower Services Commission that the industry has the capacity to train people here to meet its needs.
§ Following a suggestion by the TUC Hotel and Catering Industry Committee, I chaired a consultation in March of this year attended by those concerned with the recruitment and training of workers for the industry. The conclusion reached 182W was that the appropriate forum for further discussion of general manpower issues was the reconstituted Economic Development Committee and in particular the Manpower Working Group of the EDC.