asked the Minister of Labour how many building workers are unemployed in the Bishop Auckland travel to work area; and in what categories these unemployed workers are.

At 11th May, 1964, 268 workers whose last employment was in the construction industry were registered at employment exchanges in the Bishop Auckland travel to work group. Of these, 28 were skilled craftsmen, 236 were labourers or in other occupations and four were young persons.

Does the Parliamentary Secretary not agree that this is highly unsatisfactory at this time of year in view of the great need for housing, schools, hospital improvements, roads and social facilities in the area? Will he undertake to have consultations with the Ministers responsible for these services to see whether more grants can be made available to mop up this amount of unemployment?

There is no doubt that in many parts of the country, and, in deed, in parts of the North-East, the bottleneck is the shortage of skilled craftsmen which already exists in the construction industry. With the work that is building up in the North-East, I am sure that the skilled craftsmen, who, the hon. Member will have noticed, are very few in number, will soon be placed in employment.

Is the Parliamentary Secretary saying that the outlook for these 250 or more people is hopeless, that there are no retraining facilities for them and no possibility of expanding the amount of building work, and that, therefore, they must remain unemployed?

Not in the least. I am saying that the work is being expanded and that training facilities are available. The hon. Member must, however, remember that the amount of labour which can be employed in expanding construction work depends upon the number of skilled craftsmen available.