§ Mr. Adleyasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he is satisfied that there are sufficient native butchers, patissiers and bakers to meet the employment requirements of the hotel and catering industry without employing foreign labour.
§ Mr. John GrantI am informed by the Manpower Services Commission, which administers the public employment service, that there are no precise figures of the supply and demand of butchers, patissiers and bakers for the hotel and catering industry.
The latest statistical information shows that for the occupational groups which include these trades the number of workers registered as unemployed exceeds the number of unfilled vacancies.
§ Mr. Adleyasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he is satisfied with the availability of apprenticeship opportunities for people seeking full-time employment in the hotel and catering industry.
§ Mr. John GrantI will reply to the hon. Member as soon as possible.
§ Mr. Adleyasked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the average wage level of (a) chefs (b) patissiers (c) butchers (d) bakers (e) hotel receptionists and (f) housekeepers in similar hotel establishments in each of the nine EEC countries.
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§ Mr. John GrantI regret this information is not available.
§ Mr. Adleyasked the Secretary of State for Employment what steps he is taking to inform school leavers of the availability of opportunities for employment in the hotel and catering industry.
§ Mr. John GrantCareers officers of the local education authorities careers services are required to provide a careers guidance service to young people about to leave school. To assist them a supply of literature explaining careers opportunities in a wide range of industries, including hotel and catering, is made available to them. Careers officers also arrange visits to local employers' establishments to enable young people to see at first hand what working conditions are like, and hotel and catering establishments are among those visited. Close contact is maintained with local employers in the industry to ensure that any vacancies they have can be brought to the notice of young people seeking such employment.
§ Mr. Adleyasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many requests for permits to employ foreign labour in the hotel and catering industry have been received by his Department each year since accession to the EEC; what percentage of these applications for permits has been granted for each year; and how many such applications have been for skilled and unskilled jobs respectively.
§ Mr. John GrantThe number of permits issued—including permissions given for those already in this country when the application was made—for both foreign and Commonwealth workers for work in the hotel and catering industry—as defined in the Standard Industrial Classification—is given in column 1 of the table.
Records of applications for work in the hotel and catering industry are available, but they exclude workers in hostels and some industrial catering establishments not covered by the quota arrangements. The figures, which are therefore not strictly comparable with those in column 1, are in column 2. Column 3 expresses the figures in column 1 as a percentage of those in column 2.
Records of applications do not distinguish between skilled and unskilled jobs.
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(1) (2) (3) Issues Applications Per cent. 1973 … 7,184 9,874 73 1974 … 7,148 8,963 80 1975 … 9,162 11,988 76 1976* … 3,844 5,917 65 Equivalent figures for 1977 are not available. * Because of industrial action affecting statistical work in the last quarter of 1976 information about work permit applications dealt with was not fully recorded. Consequently the number of permits and permissions given and applications refused cannot be stated accurately. The table above covers recorded data only.