Unemployment in Scotland
Nadine Dorries Excerpts(11 years, 11 months ago)
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Nadine Dorries (in the Chair)
Order. Mr McKenzie, I will call the Opposition Front-Bench spokesman at 10.40 am, so if you take just 10 minutes, that would be great.
Graeme Morrice
Is it not the case that the current Government are borrowing far in excess of what they are spending? Indeed, based on their original projections, they are borrowing substantially more than they anticipated.
Nadine Dorries (in the Chair)
Order. We are getting into a debate on the economy, rather than on unemployment in Scotland. Can we keep to the subject of the debate?
David Mundell
Indeed. I will leave the economy to my colleague the Chancellor, who will no doubt respond to the exact issue raised by the hon. Member for Livingston (Graeme Morrice).
Some important points have been raised, and hon. Members have taken the opportunity to highlight what is being done in their local authority areas. We have to recognise what an important role local government plays in taking forward the jobs agenda.
I am pleased to confirm the work of the Scottish Employability Forum. Although the title includes the word “employability,” the forum actually focuses on all employment issues, because as the hon. Member for Glasgow North (Ann McKechin) made clear in an intervention, things are not working as well as they could be for the Scottish Government in their partnerships with both local government and the UK Government. In fact, people in the Work programme in Scotland are being refused training, which is a great concern to us all.