HC Deb 12 March 1991 vol 187 cc483-6W
Mr. Pawsey

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement on the principal achievements of his Department since June 1987.

Mr. Jackson

Employment has continued to rise, and the work force in employment is now over 27.3 million, the highest ever level, over 2.3 million higher than in June 1987. Unemployment is just under 1 million lower than at the June 1987 election. The United Kingdom continues to have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the European Community. Only Germany, Luxembourg and Portugal have lower rates. The number of people who have been unemployed for more than 12 months has fallen by 59 per cent. since July 1987. Unemployment among the 18 to 24s is also down by over a third since October 1987. In December 1990 under-25s EC unemployment rate for the United Kingdom is 10.5 per cent. compared with the EC average of 16 per cent.

Over the last three years, the Government have radically reformed the framework within which training and enterprise are supported in Britain. We have created a network of local training and enterprise councils to give business a leading role in local training and economic development. We have stimulated the development of a comprehensive system of industry training organisations. Through the National Council for Vocational Qualifications, we have made substantial progress with the reform of vocational qualifications, producing a ladder of opportunity for individuals to climb to higher levels of competence.

The Government's training measures, now under the local direction of TECs, have helped substantial numbers of people. In recent years 2.7 million young people have benefited from youth training; 900,000 unemployed adults from employment training; and 850,000 from the technical and vocational education initiative. 84,000 students annually are now benefiting through the enterprise in higher education initiative. The growth of training in Britain in recent years is demonstrated by the 70 per cent. rise shown by the labour force surveys 1984–89 in the numbers of employees receiving training from their employers.

The technical and vocational education initiative (TVEI) has helped schools in all LEAs to make their curricula relevant to the world of work and has provided a substantial increase in the numbers of students obtaining a record of achievement.

Compacts, which are bargains between young people from inner city areas, schools, employers and training providers, are operational in 47 areas; 15 more are planned. In the first 29 areas over 50,000 students are covered by the job with training guarantee; over 300 schools are participating; over 5,000 employers are actively involved; and 25,000 jobs with quality training have been pledged for successful compacts graduates.

The education business partnerships initiative was launched in 1990 with plans to set up single partnerships in each TEC area to improve work relevant education opportunities and widen business involvement.

Following a successful pilot programme, career development loans were made available throughout Great Britain in July 1988 to help individuals pay for vocational training of their own choice. By the end of January 1991 over 15,000 people had invested some £44 million in their own future through training. More than four out of five people paying for their training using a career development loan go into or are already in jobs on finishing their training.

The number of small firms in Britain and the level of self-employment continue to rise rapidly. In 1988 and 1989 the number of VAT-registered firms grew by 152,000. The number of self-employed people rose by 520,000 between June 1987 and June 1990. Early indications for 1990 based on VAT registrations are that there continues to be a significant increase in the number of businesses.

Since 1987 we have continued our step-by-step approach to the reform of industrial relations and trade union law, which has helped to bring about the significant improvement in industrial relations during the 1980s.

The Employment Act 1988 gave union members the right to restrain their union from calling on them to take industrial action without a proper secret ballot, the right to inspect union accounting records, the right to elect all principal union leaders by secret postal ballot under independent scrutiny, and the right not to be unjustifiably disciplined by their union. The Commissioner for the Rights of Trade Union Members was established to assist union members taking certain proceedings.

Employees were protected, in all circumstances, against dismissal for membership or non-membership of a trade union, and organising industrial action to establish or maintain any closed shop practice was made unlawful.

The Employment Act 1989 promoted equality of opportunity for women in employment, removed unnecessary restrictions on young people in work, and paved the way for the removal of the weight of Industrial Training Board bureaucracy from major sections of British industry.

The main industrial relations and trade union law provisions of the Employment Act 1990 came into force on 1 January 1991. They give anyone refused a job on the grounds of membership or non-membership of a trade union a right of complaint to an industrial tribunal, make a trade union responsible in law for a call to take industrial action by any of their officials, and make it unlawful to organise secondary industrial action or action in support of an employee dismissed while taking unofficial industrial action. In addition, any employee taking unofficial action will know that they risk losing the right to claim unfair dismissal if they are dismissed. New requirements on union election and strike ballots enhance union members' democratic rights, and the powers of the Commissioner for the Rights of Trade Union Members are extended to enable her to assist proceedings arising from a breach, or possible breach, of a union's rule on certain matters.

A new statutory code of practice "Trade Union Ballots on Industrial Action" came into operation on 11 April 1990. The code promotes desirable practices in relation to the conduct by trade unions of such ballots.

As a result of the abolition of the highly restrictive dock labour scheme by the Dock Work Act 1989, the efficiency and labour productivity of the former scheme ports has been transformed and new business opportunities in and around the ports are flourishing.

The employment service (ES) was created in October 1987 by bringing together in one organisation both job placement and payment of benefits to unemployed people, in order to provide a more coherent and effective service to those in need of help to get jobs and thereby fill employers' vacancies. In April 1990 the ES was established as the largest "next steps" agency to date.

In 1989–90 the ES placed in jobs 1–85 million people, 80 per cent. of whom were unemployed. The ES is continuing to improve its services and programmes with the introduction of back to work plans for all unemployed people, the establishment of a unified advisory service, and extra help for those unemployed for over six months.

The ES has made a successful start to the process of combining the functions of job centres and unemployment benefit offices under one roof, so that clients can benefit more easily from the full range of ES services. The Government are investing £70 million in the new network of 1,100–1,200 offices, which will be completed by 1994.

In 1990 my Department issued a consultative document "Employment and Training for People with Disabilities", setting out proposals to increase the effectiveness of the services which assist people with disabilities to prepare for, gain and retain employment. Responses to this document are now being considered.

The Department has continued to play an active role in the discussions of EC social affairs policies and the United Kingdom, as shown in a recent report by the European Commission, is the only member state to implement all 18 existing measures in the social field.

We have also continued our programme to modernise and update the law relating to health and safety at work, in particular by a major revision of the law governing the control of substances potentially hazardous to health in the work place.