§ Mr. John Evansasked the Secretary of State for Employment to what extent the Training Services Agency special training measures are available to the public sector; and what is his estimate of participation in 1976 and 1977.
§ Mr. GoldingI am informed by the Manpower Services Commission that the nationalised industries have equal access with private industry to the measures; but that in central Government and local government and the health services constraints on staffing and expenditure have necessarily limited the scope for additional recruitment and the measures have been used mainly to help maintain the contribution normally made by these sectors to craft training for the construction industry generally and to providing industrial experience for additional college-based sandwich course students.
Some 1,100 premium grants and 1,100 sandwich course grants with an estimated value of £3.6 million were made available to the public sector in 1976–77. Offers for 1977–78 are still being discussed with the Training Services Agency and are likely to be on a similar scale to 1976–77.