HC Deb 26 October 1992 vol 212 cc498-9W
Mr. Dobson

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many extra staff are to be taken on by the Employment Service in mining areas(a) before Christmas 1992 and (b) before 31 March 1993.

Mr. McLoughlin

Responsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service Agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Mr. A. G. Johnson to Mr. Frank Dobson, dated 26 October 1992:

As the Employment Service is an Executive Agency, it is the responsibility of Mike Fogden, the Agency's Chief Executive to answer parliamentary questions about relevant operational matters. In his absence, I am replying to your question to the Secretary of State for Employment about how many extra staff are to be taken on by the Employment Service in mining areas.

The Employment Service will of course play its part in assisting to alleviate the problems of the newly unemployed in the mining districts by offering a full range of services. These include help in finding new employment, counselling, guiding people to training courses, and ensuring that all due benefits are paid promptly and correctly.

However until such time as more positive information is available on where and when all the redundancies will fall I am unable to say how many extra staff will be deployed in the mining areas. I can nevertheless assure you that our regional Directors will make sufficient staff available to meet the immediate needs of the newly redundant miners.

As decided by the Administrative Committee of the House of Commons, Chief Executive replies to written Parliamentary Questions will now be published in the Official Report. I will also place a copy of this letter in the Library of the House.

Mr. Dobson

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment (1) whether the additional sum promised to training and enterprise councils in mining areas comes from the overall training and enterprise councils budget;

(2) what is the total additional sum promised to training and enterprise councils in areas affected by the recently announced pit closures.

Mr. McLoughlin

An additional £75 million has been made available in areas affected by potential colliery closures. The TECs concerned have been asked to co-ordinate action plans for new measures to alleviate the effects of closures. The net effect on TEC expenditure of this extra provision will depend on what is proposed in the action plans.