§ Miss Joan Lestorasked the Secretary of State for Employment in what circumstances employment vouchers are issued to women from the Philippines to work as domestic servants in the United Kingdom; and how many have been issued during the last 12 months.
§ Mr. Harold WalkerWork permits are issued to women from the Philippines to work as resident domestics in Great Britain in accordance with the provisions of the work permit scheme which are that no suitable worker is available from the resident labour force; the wages and conditions of employment offered are not less favourable than those prevailing for similar work in the same district; the worker is between 18–20 in the case of private domestic service—and 54; and for private or hotel domestic service the 751W worker has had one year's similar experience abroad. Statistics of work permits issued are not available for domestic workers by sex, but I understand that the majority of applications made for domestics as a whole are for women. The most recent statistics available show that for 1975 the number of permits issued for Filipino domestics was 910, of which 562 were for jobs in private domestic service.