§ Lord Molloyasked Her Majesty's Government:
How they propose to help those small businesses which have, on the advice of the Department of Trade and Industry, invested in increasing their workforce and improving training, but now have no work.
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Employment (Viscount Ullswater):Decisions to invest in people or plant must always be the responsibility of individual firms, taking account of all the relevant circumstances. The Government's general role is to set the medium term financial framework with policy directed at reducing inflation and making markets work more efficiently to provide a better context for companies to plan ahead.