§ Mr. Fosterasked the Secretary of State for Employment if it is his policy that the two guarantees given to unemployed 16 to 19-year-olds ensuring the offer of a place in the youth opportunity programme, will be maintained in 1981–82 and 1982–83, without any decrease in the quality of the programme, or the amount of time young people are entitled to spend in the programme.
§ Mr. Jim Lester[pursuant to his reply, 16 July 1980, c. 551]: I have made it clear on a number of occasions that the Government will continue to back the
Wolverhampton employment office area West Midlands Region Unemployed for over 52 and up to 104 weeks Aged under 18 years 22 170 Aged 18–19 years 91 1,085 Aged 20 years and over 913 15,908 Unemployed for over 104 weeks Aged under 18 years — 7 Aged 18–19 years 21 206 Aged 20 years and over 1,029 17,243
§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many men, women, young people and school leavers, respectively, are currently unemployed in Wolverhampton and in the West Midlands as a whole; and how many vacancies there are for each group in each area.
§ Mr. Jim Lester[pursuant to his reply, 15 July 1980, c. 471]: At 12 June, there were 6,370 males and 3,460 females registered as unemployed in the Wolverhampton employment office area. Of these, 1,418 were school leavers under 18 years of age. The corresponding figures for the West Midlands region were 107,278 males, 51,801 females and 13,384 school leavers.
734Wyouth opportunities programme to the hilt.
Renewal of the undertakings for 1981–82 and beyond is subject to discussion with the Manpower Services Commission. This autumn I shall receive its recommendations on the scale and shape of the programme in 1981–82 and I have no doubt that the undertakings will figure prominently in those recommendations.
In the meantime, efforts to improve the quality and relevance of opportunities continue unabated.