Oral Answers to Questions — Employment – in the House of Commons am 12:00 am ar 8 Gorffennaf 1963.
asked the Minister of Labour how many redundancies among workers in Glasgow have been reported to his Department over the year up to the latest convenient date.
asked the Minister of Labour how many redundancies among workers in Lanarkshire have been reported, to his Department over the year up to the latest convenient date.
asked the Minister of Labour how many redundancies among workers in Fife have been reported to his Department over the year up to the latest convenient date.
asked the Minister of Labour how many redundancies among workers in Dunbartonshire have been reported to his Department over the year up to the latest convenient date.
asked the Minister of Labour how many redundancies among workers in Renfrewshire have been reported to his Department over the year up to the latest convenient date.
In the 12 months ending mid-June, 1963, 202 redundancies were reported in Glasgow, 66 in Lanarkshire, 32 in Fife, 20 in Dunbartonshire, and 53 in Renfrewshire affecting 10,169, 3,285, 2,378, 923 and 2,252 workers, respectively.
Do not these figures show that it is a waste of time for skilled men to put themselves on to the Ministry of Labour's books? There have been 202 redundancies in my constituency. Within the last fortnight another closure in the shipbuilding industry has been announced. Consequently, there will be more redundancies to add to the figure of 202. This is an inexcusable waste of skilled manpower in the Glasgow area. Surely the Government have some plan to cope with this problem. These men do not serve their time merely to become ciphers on the Ministry's books.
I think that the hon. Gentleman misunderstood my Answer. I said that 202 cases of redundancy were reported, affecting 10,169 people in the Glasgow area.
Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that hon. Members on both sides of the House find it difficult to understand a long series of figures such as he has just given? As these were separate Questions, why could we not have been given separate information? Will the Minister bear in mind that those figures represent jobs that have disappeared? This is not merely unemployment. These jobs have disappeared. Does the Minister agree that, according to the information available, the number of jobs disappearing exceeds the number of new jobs appearing?
I thought it only right to try to answer the Questions in the way I did, not from any desire to be discourteous to individual Members of the House, but because there were a large number of Questions on the Order Paper. I thought it would probably suit the convenience of the House if I answered them in that way.
On the problems of Lanarkshire, which I know the hon. Gentleman had in mind, it has already come out in answer to Questions tabled by the hon. Member for Lanarkshire, North (Miss Herbison) that the industry most affected from the point of view of redundancy has been coalmining, with 1,200 workers affected. It is interesting that, since the beginning of 1962, closures or partial closures have affected 1,800 workers in the coalmining industry in Lanarkshire and over 1,100 of these have subsequently been redeployed in Scotland by the National Coal Board.
Is the Minister aware that to talk in terms of one or two new factories here or there will not solve this problem because the number of new jobs which, we hope, will be provided will not make up for the number of workers who are receiving redundancy notices? Is he aware, for example, that at the end of this week 750 of my constituents will be out of work because of the closure of the local linoleum factory? Will he treat this matter as one of great urgency and urge his local officers to deal with those who will become unemployed at the end of this week with special consideration and expedition?
I will certainly do all I can, and I am sure that my officers will do the same. As the hon. Member and the House knows, for I have said this repeatedly, there is no short cut to the solving of Scotland's unemployment problems. They can be solved only by the provision of more new jobs and this is the aim to which the Government are committed.
Would the right hon. Gentleman repeat, for my benefit, the Dunbartonshire figures?
Twenty in Dunbartonshire, affecting 923 workers.
Does the right hon. Gentleman not realise, arising out of these questions, that we are now being faced more and more with a quite new problem relating to unemployment; namely, unemployment which is attributable in the main to mechanical and technological changes? Would it be possible for the Minister to institute inquiries in order to provide clear figures to show the number of persons who have been thrown out of work during, say. the last twelve months, through technological change and rationalisation, and those who have been made unemployed as a result of ordinary trade recessions?
I will see if that can be done. The right hon. Gentleman is correct in saying that a part of these figures for redundancy is due to what he describes as technological change. However, I am sure that he will also agree that another part of them is due to the fact that certain of our older industries are contracting in size.
asked the Minister of Labour what was the increase in the number of male insured employees from mid-1959 to the latest available date in Great Britain and in Scotland, respectively.
The number of male employees, employed and unemployed, rose by 450,000 in Great Britain from mid-1959 to mid-1962 and by 3,000 in Scotland.
Is the Minister aware of the differential which is shown in those figures, and should not something be done, having regard to the total of insured employees, to create more job opportunities in Scotland?
As I have said, I think that we are all resolved in this House to see that more new jobs are provided in areas of high unemployment, that is in Scotland, the North-East and else-where. The actions of the Government are geared to achieve that objective.
Can the Minister give any idea of the number of people who have had to leave Scotland, apart from those registered as unemployed in Scotland, during this period?
I would be grateful if the right hon. Gentleman would put down that Question. It is not easy to give accurate figures of this sort but, if he will table a Question seeking the information, I will probably be able to give him some statistics which will be of assistance to him.
asked the Minister of Labour what was the increase in the number of female insured employees from mid-1959 to the latest available date in Great Britain and in Scotland, respectively.
The number of female employees, employed and unemployed, rose by 480,000 in Great Britain from mid-1959 to mid-1962 and by 35,000 in Scotland.
Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that many female school leavers in Fife have managed to secure employment this summer only by travelling to the North of Scotland and taking jobs in the hotel industry? What steps does the Minister propose to take to ensure that there will be employment in Fife for these girls when they return at the end of the holiday season?
Fife is one of the areas which I hope will benefit from the plans the Government have set in being. I think that there is some comfort to be gained from the fact that there is less disparity between the increase in the number of female employees in Scotland and in Great Britain as a whole than that for males.
Is the Minister happy in the knowledge that young girls aged 16 are having to leave their mining villages and seek work in the Isle of Man and elsewhere? Should he not be doing something more to find work for these young people in their own home towns so that, at these young ages, their parents can exercise some influence over them?
I can assure the hon. Lady that I shall never be satisfied with this sort of happening. It is to ensuring that more local employment is made available in areas of high unemployment that the actions of the Government are being directed.