§ Mr. McNamaraasked the Minister of Labour (1) if he will give figures to show the relationship between the introduction of the Industrial Training Act, 1964, the formation of the industrial training board for the construction industry, the introduction of the industrial training levy and the increase in the number of self-employed persons in the construction industry;
(2) what increase there has been in the number of self-employed persons in the construction industry since the introduction of the Contracts of Employment Act, 1963, and the Redundancy Payments Act, 1965, respectively, as an absolute figure and as a percentage.
§ Mr. GunterI regret that no figures are available to show changes over the periods in question in the number of self-employed persons in the construction industry.
§ Mr. McNamaraasked the Minister of Labour in the event of the Industrial Court making an award stating that workers are employees and not self-employed in the building industry, what steps are taken by his Department to ensure that the Selective Employment Tax is paid by the employer named in such an award; and, in the event of such an award by the Industrial Court ruling that a particular company is the employer of a group of men, what steps are taken by the construction industry's training board to assess such an employer for the payment of the industrial levy.
§ Mr. GunterThe liability of employers to pay Selective Employment Tax is a matter for the Minister of Social Security, who has regard to all relevant circumstances. All employers in the construction industry who are known to the Construction Industry Training Board and to whom the levy order applies are assessed to levy.
§ Mr. McNamaraasked the Minister of Labour what difficulties the constructional industry training board has experienced in tracing labour-only sub-contractors in the building industry; how 270W many of these firms have conceded liability for paying the industrial training levy; how many have claimed exemption; and whether the board has received replies from all circularised labour only sub-contractors.
§ Mr. Gunter:I do not require Boards to supply me with the kind of detailed information asked for in the Question. The Board has, however, been good enough to inform me that they circularised about 45,000 employers thought to be labour-only contractors, of whom 15,000 could not be traced by the Post Office. Replies were received from about 14,300. Of this number all but 647 were found to be not liable to levy, either because they employed no labour or because emoluments paid were less than £5,000. Information about the number who have appealed against assessment to levy is not available.