§ Mr. Barry Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Employment what estimate he has made of the cost of securing the pension rights of the staffs of industrial training boards; and what safeguards exist to protect the pension rights of any board staff whose employment is terminated on the winding-up of a board.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonThe Manpower Services Commission is currently conducting a sector-by-sector review of training in industry, including the role of industrial training boards. Until decisions have been reached about the future of the boards following this review it is not possible to estimate the cost of any redundancy payments to staff, including those relating to pension rights.
Pension rights of staff who are members of the industrial training board pension scheme are protected by the rules of the scheme, which form part of their conditions of service.
§ Mr. Barry Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Employment what the cost would be of winding up the industrial training boards, with an estimate for each individual board; and what size of levy would be necessary for each individual board under the provisions of section 9(3) of the Industrial Training Act 1964.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonThe information is not available.
The cost of winding up industrial training boards would have to be assessed by the boards themselves taking into account the terms and conditions applicable to their staffs, their ages, length of service, salaries and so on, and individual circumstances relating to the boards operations.
The necessity for the size of any terminal levy under the provisions of section 9(3) of the Industrial Training Act 469W 1964—as amended—would depend on the outstanding liabilities of the particular boards and the amount of their financial resources, including reserve funds, which may or may not be sufficient to cover the liabilities.
The Manpower Services Commission will be considering these matters with the individual boards during the next few months as the sector-by-sector review of the arrangments for promoting industrial training progresses.
§ Mr. Barry Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Employment what levy will be required by each individual industrial training board to maintain its present level of activities and meet its own operating costs.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonThat is for each board to assess in the light of its future levy exemption policies and the opportunities it may find for making economies or introducing charges.
Information about the amount of levy—on the basis of a proportion of payroll—which each board would have to raise to finance its operating costs is contained in table 22 of the report "Outlook on Training: A review of the Employment and Training Act 1973". A copy of this report is held in the House of Commons Library.