§ Mr. Knoxasked the Secretary of State for Employment (1) pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for Leek, Official Report, 22 February, on what basis his Department plans measures to combat unemployment amongst school leavers, considering the fact that it makes no estimates of the number of school leavers likely to be involved;
(2) pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for Leek, Official Report, 22 February, why his Department does not produce estimates of the number of school leavers likely to be out of work in forthcoming months;
(3) pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for Leek, Official Report, 22 February, when he expects his Department to start producing estimates of the number of school leavers likely to be out of work in subsequent months.
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§ Mr. GoldingMy reply to the hon. Member for Leek (Mr. Knox) on 22 February was in respect of assessments of likely numbers of unemployed school leavers by economic planning region. Although at this level estimates are not available, assessments of the likely levels of unemployment among school leavers, given various assessments about total unemployment and the relative earnings of young people and adults, are made on a national basis by the Manpower Services Commission in the course of operating the youth opportunities programme.
In each area there are MSC area boards responsible for the preparation of annual plans. These plans are derived from the views of the careers service which assesses the likely needs of unemployed school leavers in terms of the scale and type of provision under the programme.