HC Deb 29 July 1988 vol 138 cc841-2W
Mr. McLeish

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will give an estimate of the percentage of gross domestic product spent on training in each of the years 1979 to 1987, inclusive; and if he will provide such comparative statistics as are available to him for each of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries over the same period.

Mr. Nicholls

The information requested is not available.

Mr. McLeish

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will give the total expenditure of the Manpower Services Commission and his Department in Scotland in each of the years 1979 to 1987, inclusive.

Mr. Nicholls

The Manpower Services Commission (named the Training Commission from May 1988) keeps records on the basis of the standard financial year for accounting for Government expenditure. The year runs from 1 April to 31 March.

The proportion of the commission's costs that can be specifically indentified with services in Scotland is financed by a contribution to the commission's grant-in-aid from the Industry Department for Scotland.

The figures for this contribution are published in the annual Appropriation Accounts and are as follows:

£
1979–80 53,244
1980–81 73,552
1981–82 92,211
1982–83 107,414
1983–84 118,541
1984–85 127,400
1985–86 133,896
1986–87 162,077

Mr. McLeish

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will give the total expenditure on the Manpower Services Commission's programme for the unemployed in each of the years 1979 to 1987, inclusive.

Mr. Nicholls

All Training Commission (formerly Manpower Services Commission) programmes are concerned to some extent with the problems of unemployment, and expenditure on those specifically for the unemployed is not identified separately. Figures for the commission's total programme expenditure, and expenditure on programmes which it manages on behalf of the Department of Employment are shown by financial year in the table.