§ 55. Mr. Michael Forsythasked the Paymaster General whether he has estimated the effect on the number of those employed in tourism of liberalisation of the licensing laws in England and Wales.
§ Mr. TrippierNo. However, last July the tourist boards issued a leaflet entitled "Time! Please" which said that the 171W introduction of flexible hours could create up to 50,000 full and part-time jobs in public houses, hotels and restaurants.
§ 57. Mr. Roger Kingasked the Paymaster General if he will outline the achievements of the Government since 1983 as regards increasing employment in the tourism industry.
§ 87. Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Paymaster General if he will outline what actions his Department has taken since June 1983 to date to encourage an increase in employment in the tourist industry.
§ Mr. TrippierFollowing publication in July 1985 of the report "Pleasure, Leisure and Jobs — The Business of Tourism" the Department of Trade and Industry's responsibilities for tourism policy in England and for Great Britain as a whole were transferred in September 1985 to the Department of Employment in recognition of tourism's important role in job creation. On 12 November 1985 my right hon. and noble Friend announced an increase of some 20 per cent. of £40 million in the funds available to the British Tourist Authority and the English Tourist Board this year.
We published last July a report entitled "Action for Jobs in Tourism" reviewing the steps that we are taking to help strengthen tourism's contribution to employment, in particular describing progress on the action points in "Pleasure, Leisure and Jobs" aimed at removing obstacles to the development of tourism.
Under Section 4 of the Development of Tourism Act 1969, the English Tourist Board has, between 1983–84 and 1985–86, provided assistance totalling £34 million to over 1,500 tourism projects which directly created nearly 6,000 jobs. It is not possible to identify the number of jobs related to support which the Government give to the English Tourist Board and to the industry generally. However there is no doubt that tourism-related employment has risen in recent years. For example in the period between June 1983 and June 1986, 129,000 additional jobs were created in the main tourism-related industries.