§ Mr. Mylesasked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the total amount of allocations made to the United Kingdom from the European social fund in 1982; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. AlisonThe Commission of the European Communities recently announced the fifth and final batch of allocations from the European Social Fund for 1982. For the year as a whole, the United Kingdom has been allocated a total of some £257.6 million, compared with £141.1 million in 1981.
Of this year's allocations to the United Kingdom, some £151 million is for training and employment schemes for 172W young people, £65 million for training and employment schemes for adults in the Assisted Areas and £23 million for schemes to train handicapped people for open employment. Schemes operated by Government Departments, the Manpower Services Commission, the Northern Ireland Department of Economic Development, nationalised industries, local authorities, private firms and voluntary organisations have all received allocations.
Since our accession to the Community more than £960 million has been allocated to the United Kingdom in grants from the European Social Fund. This represents a substantial, and very welcome, contribution from the European Community to training and employment schemes in this country, especially for young people.