§ Mr. Nicholas BennettTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment what consideration has been given to the introduction of a workfare scheme, along the lines of those introduced in the United States of America; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Lee[pursuant to his reply, 28 June 1988]: I regret that there was an error in the original reply. The number of unfilled vacancies in the economy should read 700,000. The full text of the reply is as follows:
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has no plans to introduce a workfare scheme. With the continuing fall in unemployment and some 700,000 unfilled job vacancies in the economy, the priority must be to ensure that unemployed people have the appropriate skills to take up the jobs which are available to them.
Tonnes Beef Butter Skimmed milk powder Cereals Dagenham 7 87 0 0 Hornsey 38 0 0 0 Leyton and Stratford 0 147 0 0 Tottenham Hale 0 0 0 0 Hackney 167 634 0 0