§ Mr. Nellistasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list the companies acting as sponsors of the youth training schemes in the Coventry travel-to-work area and the numbers of young people involved at each workplace.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonThis information can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
§ Mr. Nellistasked the Secretary of State for Employment on what date the £25 per week allowance presently paid to young people on youth training schemes was first implemented.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonThe training allowance was increased to £25 per week with effect from 1 January 1982.
§ Mr. Nellistasked the Secretary of State for Employment what representations he received prior to determining that the allowance paid to young people on the youth training scheme should be £25 per week.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonIn addition to the proposals put forward by the Manpower Services Commission on the level of allowance, the Government received representations from Members of Parliament, members of the public and various other organisations.
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§ Mr. Nellistasked the Secretary of State for Employment on what date he last reviewed the £25 per week allowance paid to young people on the youth training schemes.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonThe £25 per week training allowance for young people on the youth training scheme was reviewed in June this year.
§ Mr. Nellistasked the Secretary of State for Employment what representations he sought prior to determining that the allowance paid to young people on the youth training scheme should be £25 per week.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonIn their White Paper, "A New Training Initiative: A Programme for Action" (Cmnd. 8455), the Government asked the Manpower Services Commission to advise on the level of allowance which would be appropriate and could be afforded within the resources available.
§ Mr. Nellistasked the Secretary of State for Employment, pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for Coventry, South-East of 16 November, Official Report, c. 480, what relationship exists between resources allocated for training costs and for training allowances on the youth training scheme; and what factors influence the balance of that relationship.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonSpending more of the available resources on allowances would necessarily mean cutting back on the resources available for training. The Government are committed to putting maximum resources into securing high quality training.
§ Mr. Nellistasked the Secretary of State for Employment, pursuant to his reply on 16 November, Official Report, c. 480, what "other expenses" the £25 per week allowance paid to young people on the youth training scheme is supposed to cover.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonThe training allowance takes into account normal day to day expenses associated with participation in the scheme.
§ Mr. Nellistasked the Secretary of State for Employment, pursuant to his reply of 16 November to the hon. Member for Coventry, South-East, Official Report,c. 480, how he assessed the benefit of the training received by young people on the youth training scheme when determining the £25 per week allowance was to remain unchanged.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonI am confident that the high quality of training young people are receiving under the scheme will be of substantial benefit to them.
§ Mr. Nellistasked the Secretary of State for Employment if, following his reply to the hon. Member for Coventry, South-East of 16 November, Official Report, c. 480, he will list those factors, other than the level of the allowance paid to young people on the youth opportunities programme and the need to ensure that maximum resources are available to meet training costs, which were taken into account in determining the figure of £25 allowance for trainees on youth training schemes.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonI refer the hon. Member to the discussion of this matter in the report of the Manpower Services Commission's youth task group (April 1982).
§ Mr. Nellistasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make it the policy of the Health and 54W Safety Executive that every workplace where a youth training scheme trainee has on-the-job training should be visited by a Manpower Services Commission officer.
§ Mr. GummerI shall reply to the hon. Member as soon as possible.
§ Mr. Nellistasked the Secretary of State for Employment what proportion of youth training scheme workplaces has already been visited by a Manpower Services Commission officer (a) in respect of standards of health and safety and (b) for general inspection purposes.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonI regret that this information is not available.
§ Mr. Nellistasked the Secretary of State for Employment what proportion of the £25 per week allowance paid to young people on youth training schemes is intended to meet trainees' normal travel.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonUp to £4.
§ Mr. Nellistasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will estimate the present-day value of the training allowance paid to young people on the youth training scheme had the original allowance on the youth opportunities programme been raised by (a) the value of the rise in retail prices and (b) the value of the rise in average earnings for manual workers.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonBetween April 1978 (when the youth opportunities programme started) and September 1983 the retail prices index increased by 74 per cent. and the average earnings index (covering manual and non-manual employees) by 93 per cent. If the original training allowance of £19.50 had been raised by the former amount it would be about £33.90 and if by the latter it would be about £37.60.
§ Mr. Nellistasked the Secretary of State for Employment what are the training costs that had to be maximised at the expense of the decision to pay a training allowance of £25 per week to young people on the youth training scheme.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonTraining costs vary from scheme to scheme. Increasing the allowance would mean cutting back on the quality of training.
§ Mr. Nellistasked the Secretary of State for Employment what representations he has received since he fixed the allowance paid to young people on the youth training scheme at only £25 per week.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonThe Government have received representations from Members of Parliament, the Trades Union Congress and members of the public.
§ Mr. Fisherasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many places on youth training schemes are still unfilled in (a) Stoke on Trent and (b) the west midlands.
§ Mr. Peter Morrison[pursuant to his reply, 17 November 1983, c. 549]: By the end of October some 34,000 young people had entered the youth training scheme in the west midlands. This represents an estimated 59 per cent. of the places available at that date. For the Stoke on Trent area the figures were 8,300 and 71 per cent. respectively.