Sir Henry Betterton: In accordance with Part II of the Unemployment Bill, the Unemployment Assistance Board will be responsible for administration throughout Great Britain. I cannot at present say what arrangements the board will make for local administration in Scotland, but I have no doubt that they will be carefully considered.
Sir Henry Betterton: The answer to the question is contained in the Bill itself. The Bill, of course, is not yet law; it has not yet received the Royal Assent-Sir PERCY HARRIS: Will this board be permanently sitting in London, or will it be a travelling board?
Sir Henry Betterton: That I cannot possibly say; it is a matter for the board.
Sir Henry Betterton: I beg pardon; I did not realise that that was the point that the hon. Member had in mind. I am afraid I am not in a position to answer that question.
Sir Henry Betterton: I beg to move, "That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment."
Sir Henry Betterton: I entirely agree with what the hon. Gentleman has said. These Amendments are, for the most part, drafting Amendments, and those which are not drafting Amendments are Amendments designed to carry out undertakings which were given when the Bill was in Committee. If I may refer to one Amendment, which I think is the only one of substance in the whole of this long list, it is an Amendment which...
Sir Henry Betterton: This is an agreed Bill between the organisations in the industry concerned, and all the Amendments—they are very few—are drafting Amendments except two, which have been agreed between the organisations. There is no difference whatever between them. As this is an agreed Bill, I hope the House will have no hesitation in accepting the Lords Amendments.
Sir Henry Betterton: The latest figures available on this point were published in the Ministry of Labour Gazette for May and relate to a special inquiry made on the 19th March. There were then 7,442 boys and girls, under 16 years of age, still attending whole-time day school while registered as applicants for employment. Boys and girls who are still under a statutory obligation to remain at school cannot be...
Sir Henry Betterton: Something like that.
Sir Henry Betterton: I regret that I can furnish no estimate on this precise point. The only information available bearing on the subject is that derived from a recent inquiry when it was found that of the boys and girls under 16 years of age who were registered as unemployed on 19th March there were 15,757 who were not at school but had had no full-time employment since leaving school.
Sir Henry Betterton: The information is not at present available. Further information will become available when the age of entry into insurance is lowered, and I will consider then the desirability of instituting such an inquiry.
Sir Henry Betterton: At 14th May, 1934, the latest date for which figures are available, there were 52,560 unemployed boys and 41,360 unemployed girls, aged 14 to 18, on the registers of Employment Exchanges and Juvenile Employment Bureaux in Great Britain. I am unable to give the numbers unemployed who were not so registered at that date, but it has been assumed in the past that the numbers unregistered are...
Sir Henry Betterton: I am not quite clear as to what my hon. Friend has in mind. I should be glad if he would communicate with me later. May I add that the Estimates to be discussed this afternoon will give my hon. Friend an opportunity of raising this and any other analogous point.
Sir Henry Betterton: As stated on previous occasions, I welcome at all times the visits of hon. Members and others to the Department's centres, and I trust they will avail themselves of the existing travelling facilities which, I understand, are ample.
Sir Henry Betterton: Yes, very full advantage is being taken, and I hope that even more advantage will be taken in the future.
Sir Henry Betterton: In view of the urgency of the problem of transference from the areas of heaviest unemployment and of the necessarily limited training facilities, it has been the policy of successive Governments to restrict recruitment for the centres to the most depressed areas. I do not at present see any justification for departing from this policy.
Sir Henry Betterton: This annual opportunity of presenting to the Committee some review of the work of the Ministry of Labour during the past year is one which I gratefully welcome, and I am glad that those responsible asked for the Vote to be put down for to-day. I confess to feelings of relief that I can review the work of the Ministry of Labour without the embarrassment of having to consider prospective...
Sir Henry Betterton: I hope so, but I could not say. I have no indication at all either as to what they will say or as to when their inquiries will be completed. I may add that I have carefully avoided taking any steps to find out, because I wish that their inquiry should be entirely independent, and not until it is completed do I want to know anything about it. I do not think I need go into the decreases in...
Sir Henry Betterton: In Scotland there has been a decrease of 39,000. The third point that I want to make is that the improvement has applied to practically every industry in the country. Compared with a year ago, only eight out of 102 industry groups show a higher percentage of unemployment, and in only two of these has the percentage increased by as much as 1 per cent.; while, as compared with the situation two...
Sir Henry Betterton: Unemployment in shipbuilding, as compared with a year ago, has fallen by 23,000. The fourth point that I want to make, and it is a very important and very encouraging one, is that, in the last year, the number of claimants who had been on the unemployment register for 12 months or more, that is to say, those who have had a long period of unemployment, has fallen by 66,000. Leaving aside the...
