§ Mr. DobsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment what response she has made to the report prepared by Coopers and Lybrand for the London TECs on the degree of their underfunding.
§ Mr. McLoughlinMy right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Employment has considered the case put forward in the report "London—a Capital Deficiency". Her conclusion is that this report is flawed in a number of important respects and fails to understand the basis of budget allocation for the TECs.
Specifically, the report gives a figure of £43.3 million as the 1992–93 youth training budget whereas the budget is in fact £61.3 million. London has 8.4 per cent. of the YT budget for England and Wales, not the 5.7 per cent. which the report puts forward.
Similarly, London has 14.4 per cent. of the total employment training budget, not the 13.3 per cent. claimed by the report.
Nonetheless, my right hon. Friend has asked her officials to meet TEC representatives to discuss how best they can tackle some of the labour market issues raised in this report.