§ Mr. Sproatasked the Secretary of State for Employment what inquiries he has recently made into the high incidence of the employment of foreign nationals in the catering industry; what conclusion he has reached about their employment; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. John GrantIn March this year my Department's Unit for Manpower Studies published a report on the role of immigrants in the labour market. The hotel and catering industry was among the sectors examined, and it emerged as one of the industries with the highest proportion of foreign-born workers. The report indicated ways in which this dependence on immigrants was being reduced and this is consistent with the Government's objective to reduce the hotel and catering industry's reliance on overseas labour recruited from non-EEC countries. To that end the annual quota of work permits for the industry has been very considerably reduced as I explained in448W my reply to my hon. Friends the Member for Chorley (Mr. Rodgers) and the Member for Tottenham (Mr. Atkinson) on 10th January. These permits are intended for people who will bring scarce skills to this country and the issues for unskilled workers are very rare indeed and for the season only.
The Employment Service Agency, which has special offices handling hotel and catering vacancies and applicants, and the local authorities' careers service materially assist the industry to recruit workers here. The Training Services Agency has considerably expanded training in relevant courses under the Training Opportunities Scheme.