§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many companies in (a) Wolverhampton, (b) the West Midlands and (c) the United Kingdom as a whole have been removed from the youth opportunities programme in the last year because they were using it as a source of cheap labour.
§ Mr. Peter Morrison[pursuant to his reply, 24 March 1981, c. 225–6]: I am informed by the Manpower Services Commission, which is responsible for operating the youth 177W opportunities programme, that this information is not available. Statistics are not kept of schemes which are terminated or not renewed because they are in breach of the criteria of the programme, including substitution. The 178W numbers are, however, unlikely to be large and the MSC's systems are designed to prevent abuse occurring in the first place.