§ 29. Mr. WrayTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what action he is taking to solve unemployment in Scotland.
§ Mr. Allan StewartThe key to increased employment is a prosperous and productive economy. The Government are firmly committed to removing the barriers to economic growth and to the stimulation of economic development, through various measures including the activities of Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and their networks of local enterprise companies.
In relation to unemployed individuals, this Government have introduced the most comprehensive range of measures there has ever been in this country to help people back to work. The Employment Service provides a wide range of services which result in two thirds of people who become unemployed leave unemployment within six months. The Employment Service also manages the employment action programme, delivered through local enterprise companies as a complement to the range of training schemes which they offer and which make a major contribution to helping young people and the long-term unemployed to improve their prospects of entering employment.
The effectiveness of these measures in Scotland can be seen from the fact that the number of those unemployed for over a year rose in Scotland by only 8.4 per cent. between January 1991 and January 1992, less than a fifth of the average for Great Britain as a whole.