§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Employment why he permitted about 900 foreigners to enter the United Kingdom and take employment in the hotel and catering industries in the circumstance of there being 16,321 British hotel and catering workers unemployed in London and 116,464 in Great Britain.
§ Mr. WaddingtonAs indicated in my reply of 26 January the latest period for which detailed information is available regarding the number of approvals of employment in the hotel and catering industry relates to 1980.
Provisional figures for 1980 show that of 866 approvals, 82 per cent. were in respect of vacational and 194W spare-time employment taken up by overseas nationals already admitted to the United Kingdom as students. The remainder were in respect of posts requiring specific skills. In all cases no suitable member of the labour force was available for the job taken up by the overseas national.