§ Mr. Penhaligonasked the Secretary of State for Employment (1) what measures he has taken to inform local authorities in areas of high unemployment of the availability of subsidies from the European Community social fund to help encourage the hiring of young workers:
(2) what measures he has taken to inform local authorities of potential subsidies to be claimed from the European Community social fund, particularly for youth unemployment; whether he is satisfied with the take-up of those subsidies by local authorities; and what proposals he has for further publicising the availability of these funds.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonInformation about the availability of assistance from the European social fund for schemes to encourage the recruitment of young people was published in theDepartment of Employment Gazette and circulated to the local authority associations at the time of its introduction at the beginning of 1979 through the machinery established by the Department of the Environment for keeping local authorities in touch with developments on European community matters.
239WMy Department will shortly be sending out copies of a new version of its explanatory booklet on the fund to local authorities, and at a recent meeting with the associations, offered a special meeting to discuss local authority interests in the Fund. My Department's officials receive a large number of inquiries from individual local authorities about all aspects of the fund, though only a small proportion result in firm applications for assistance to the fund. Overall, the United Kingdom has done well out of the young people's section of the fund; in 1980 we secured allocations of £71 million, over 30 percent. of the total allocated for the Community as a whole.