Mr. Jim Callaghanasked the Secretary of State for Employment how much 115W has been spent to date on retraining schemes initiated by the Manpower Services Commission in the years 1977–78, 1978–79 and 1979–80.
§ Mr. Jim LesterTraining and retraining of persons who are unemployed is provided by the Manpower Services Commission (MSC) under the training opportunities scheme. I am informed by the MSC that the total expenditure under that scheme for the years in question was as follows:
£ million 1977–78 189.005 1978–79 206.617 1979–80 (provisional) 229.730 Costs of training provided for unemployed young people are included in the figures for the first two years.