§ Mr. DobsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment, pursuant to her answers of 19 November 1992,Official Report, column 337, and 4 March 1993, Official Report, columns 272–73, what happened to the skill centres in Cardiff, Deptford, Edinburgh RO, Enfield (annex), Ipswich, Manchester RO and Swindon.
§ Mr. McLoughlinThe skill centres at Cardiff, Deptford, Swindon and Enfield were taken over by Astra Training 67W Services Limited (Astra) in May 1990. The Department's freehold interest in Enfield was transferred to Astra. Astra occupied the Cardiff, Deptford and Swindon sites on short term lease arrangements, whilst the Department put the sites on the open market. Astra relocated its training business at Swindon in July 1992.
The skill centre at Ipswich was initially taken over by the Training for Industry and Commerce Company (TICC) Ltd. and subsequently by Portals Engineering Limited under short term lease arrangements. The Department put the site on the open market when the training business was relocated in September 1992.
The Manchester RO and Edinburgh RO were Skills Training Agency (STA) regional offices (ROs), not training centres. Both sites were disposed of by the Department following the privatisation of the STA in May 1990.