HC Deb 17 April 1989 vol 151 cc69-70W
Mr. Allen Adams

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) if he will make it his policy that present Training Agency policies on health and safety, equal opportunities for people with disabilities and ethnic minorities will continue through local agencies and Scottish Enterprise;

(2) what arrangements through local agencies and Scottish Enterprise will be put in place to ensure (a) people with learning difficulties and (b) the long-term unemployed will be effectively catered for;

(3) what arrangements will apply to ensure that private employers on local agencies boards will not have vested interests in the local agencies' expenditure decisions;

(4) what arrangements he proposes for independent monitoring of (a) the quality of Scottish Enterprise delivered training and outturns and (b) local agency delivered training and outturns;

(5) whether civil servants on secondment to local agencies or Scottish Enterprise will be able to alert Ministers to any financial irregularities that they find in (a) local agencies, (b) Scottish Enterprise, (c) contracts training providers and (d) other contracts;

(6) what arrangements he intends to introduce to ensure that quality training is provided by local agencies;

(7) if he will make it his policy that the employment rehabilitation service in Scotland will remain as part of the United Kingdom employment rehabilitation service run through the Training Agency.

Mr. Lang

We are currently reassessing the proposals in the Scottish Enterprise White Paper in the light of all the responses received, and will announce our detailed decisions in due course.

Mr. Allen Adams

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much public money was spent on the billboard advertisement covering Sainsbury's plc participation in the employment training scheme in Scotland.

Mr. Lang

The Employment Training bill-board campaign featuring Sainsburys, IBM and Wimpey ran throughout Great Britain in January and March. The cost of £660,000 cannot be broken down to attribute expenditure to Scotland or to individual companies.