§ Mr. Hargreavesasked the Secretary of State for Employment (1) how many people entered the youth training scheme in (a) Hyndburn and (b) north-east Lancashire in 1984;
(2) what was the placement percentage of those completing the youth training scheme in (a) Hyndburn and (b) north-east Lancashire;
(3) how many people completed the youth training scheme in (a) Hyndburn and (b) north-east Lancashire in 1984.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonThe information requested on numbers of young people who entered or completed youth training scheme programmes between January and December 1984 is given in the following table:
Hyndburn local authority district North-east Lancashire Entrants 450 3,999 Completions 136 1,504 Note:
North-east Lancashire covers the local authority districts of Blackburn Burnley, Hyndburn, Pendle, Ribble Valley and Rossendale.
I regret that information on the destinations of young people completing schemes is not available in the precise form requested. However, information based on a 15 per cent. sample of young people in the county of Lancashire who left the youth training scheme between July and September 1984 shows that, at the time of the survey, 63 per cent. were in work.
§ Mr. Irvingasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement on the progress of the youth training scheme in the Cheltenham area since its inception.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonProgress on the youth training scheme in the Cheltenham area has been most encouraging. Some 1,500 entrants in the Cheltenham local authority district have benefited from the scheme so far. The undertaking that all minimum age school leavers remaining unemployed would be offered a suitable place on the scheme by Christmas has been effectively met in the first two years of the scheme.
§ Mr. Baldryasked the Secretary of State for Employment what action he has taken to seek to ensure that local education authorities in England carry out their statutory obligations in respect of the youth training scheme and benefit.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonI have asked the head of the Department of Employment's careers service branch to660W write to all chief education officers in England to remind them that local education authorities are, by virtue of section 12(2) of the Employment and Training Act 1973, under a statutory obligation to give information to the unemployment benefit service on behalf of the Secretary of State concerning those youngsters who refuse a reasonable opportunity of receiving training on the youth training scheme. A copy of the letter which was sent on 11 July has been placed in the Library.
The letter refers to the fact that this information is required in connection with the determination of questions as to whether such youngsters should have their benefit temporarily reduced. The letter makes it clear that I am strongly of the view that this is a reasonable requirement on local education authorities which does not in any sense mean that the youth training scheme is "compulsory". Youngsters who, in the past, unreasonably refused jobs or "approved training" were similarly liable to have their benefit reduced: the designation of the youth training scheme as "approved training" is simply an extension of that long established principle.