6. Statement by the Leader of the House and Chief Whip: Update on the Better Jobs Closer to Home Programme

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:51 pm on 5 June 2018.

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Photo of David Rowlands David Rowlands UKIP 5:51, 5 June 2018

I thank the leader of the house for this statement. Of course, UKIP welcomes any project that promotes employment opportunities in some of our most deprived areas. It is especially appropriate that it is in design to engage those who have not been employed for some time and that there is a mention of work for disabled people. However, on the subject of the disabled, would it not have been a good idea to have set up one of these pilot units to employ only disabled people, rather on the line of the Remploy factories, which were so tragically shut down over the last few decades? We know from enquiries made by the EIS Committee that Wales is significantly behind England in providing apprenticeships for unemployed people. Would the leader of the house consider setting up such units, that is those dedicated to employing people with all sorts of disabilities, as the project is extended? We would then be able to put people into work who would find it difficult to find employment in the purely private sector.