§ Mr. Ridleyasked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the total levy income of the Distributive Industry Training Board; how much is spent on grants for training; and what percentage of companies paying levy receive such grants.
§ Mr. Harold WalkerI am informed by the Manpower Services Commission that in the last full year for which accounts have been published—year ending 31st March 1975—levy income of the Distributive Training Board was £10,614,913, of which £8,570,974 was returned to the industry in the form of grants for training. A further £1,205,892 would have been paid in levy by other firms had they not been exempted, because of the training standard they had achieved, under the provisions of the Board's nonstatutory levy exemption scheme then in operation. Firms receiving grants or achieving levy exemption, equivalent to a grant of 100 per cent., represent 66.8 per cent. of firms subject to levy, and employ 82.3 per cent. of the employees in those firms.