HC Deb 16 June 1989 vol 154 cc587-8W
Mr. Harry Barnes

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list the categories of information held by his Department that will be available for use by community charge registration officers.

Mr. Cope

Unemployment benefit offices are required to disclose details of the name and address of any person or their partner, aged 18 or over, to a registration officer for a charging authority. This information may only be disclosed if

  1. (i) at any time between 22 May 1989 and 31 March 1990 a person is in receipt of income support but is not receiving housing benefit; and
  2. (ii) from April 1990 where a person is awarded income support but has not made a claim for community charge benefits.

Mr. Leighton

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he has received a copy of the comparative training of clothing workers in Britain and West Germany by the National Insitute of Economic and Social Research; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Cope

My Department has received a copy of the National Institute Economic Review (No. 125, May 1989) in which the article "Productivity, Machinery and Skills: Clothing Manufacture in Britain and Germany" appears.

The article points to long standing differences between the training arrangements adopted in Britain and Germany and warrants careful consideration by the industry. In doing so they will be aware of the considerable progress made in recent years, notably through the introduction of two-year YTS and the "Clothing Skill Awards" accredited by the National Council for Vocational Qualifications in 1988.

1987–88 1988–89 1989–90
Percentage of projects with later completion dates than original 83 75
Percentage of projects with higher current estimate of expenditure than original 60