§ Mrs. Bainasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will take steps to encourage industrialists in the north and north-east of Scotland to increase their support for the employment of disabled people by giving a much greater proportion of sub-contract work to the sheltered workshop at Longman Industrial Estate, Inverness.
§ Mr. Harold WalkerI have been asked to reply. My Department helps to operate the priority supplier's scheme under which Government Departments and nationalised industries are encouraged to place orders with sheltered workshops and factories. My Department also provides financial assistance to sheltered workshops including the one mentioned by the hon. Member by means of deficiency grants and grants for the purchase of approved capital equipment. It does not, however, interfere in the day-to-day running of the workshops or the way in which they obtain orders for work.