§ Mr. Gryllsasked the Secretary of State for Employment how the Manpower Services Commission determines its financial priorities when assessing what funds should be used for the support of apprenticeship training as compared with money to be allocated for the support of unemployed young people via the youth opportunities programme.
§ Mr. Peter Morrison[pursuant to his reply, 20 July 1981, c. 56]: The Manpower Services Commission's priorities for expenditure are determined in the light of overall labour market needs and are set out in its draft corporate plan for the four years ahead. The draft plan is submitted to me and my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Scotland and for Wales in the autumn of each year.
The commission's corporate plan for 1981 to 1985, which I approved on 30 March 1981, included a commitment to offer to as many as possible unemployed school leavers a place on the youth opportunities programme by Christmas 1981, and to move towards the ultimate target of making an offer of a suitable youth 146W opportunities programme opportunity within three months to all 16 and 17-year-olds who have been registered as unemployed for more than three months.
The corporate plan also indicated the commission's anxiety about the level of support which would be necessary to maintain the recruitment of apprentices in the face of the accelerating rate of redundancies among apprentices and the major reduction in apprentice intakes which was then in prospect. The plan made it clear that without additional resources it would not be possible to support more than 22,000 to 24,000 first-year apprentices in 1981–82 and proposed to enter into discussion with the Government about how increased support could be achieved. I am considering the representations the commission has since made to me on this matter.