§ Mr. Wareingasked the Secretary of State for Employment what will be the implications for employment of his plan to close the Liverpool skillcentre; how many instructors will be made redundant; what will be the savings; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Peter Morrison[pursuant to his reply, 6 December 1984, c. 258]: I refer the hon. Member to the statement made by my right hon. Friend on 29 November at columns 1108–16. Proposals for the future of the skillcentre network have been put to the Manpower Services Commission by the skillcentre training agency and the Commission has yet to consider them.
Around 450 of the staff who would be affected nationally are in the instructional grades including some 37 at Liverpool skillcentre. The Manpower Services Commission would discuss detailed proposals with the relevant trade unions with a view to achieving the proposed changes with as little disruption to staff as possible.
The closure of Liverpool skillcentre would result in an annual saving to the agency in premises costs alone of about £400,000. The proposals as a whole would ensure the agency achieved full cost-recovery from 1986–87, thus ending the need for a subvention from the taxpayer.
Under locally run adult training programmes as a whole we plan to more than double the number of people who will be trained in Liverpool and Sefton from around 2,000 in 1984–85 to around 4,400 in 1985–86.