EUROPEAN SOCIAL FUND AND RETRAINING

Early day motion 332, tabled 17 December 2008 by Michael Connarty (Labour). Signed by 35 members.

That this House welcomes the Government's decision to pledge a further £58 million from the European Social Fund (ESF) allocation to retrain people facing redundancy in addition to the £100 million pledged to the scheme in October 2008, in contrast to the lack of action by the minority SNP Scottish government which has failed to pledge any of its ESF funding for assistance to those facing the impact of unemployment when Scotland faces the additional problem of a freeze in the commissioning of new public sector capital works due to the failure of the SNP proposed Scottish Futures Trust funding method; and calls upon the appropriate Government department and the Secretary of State for Scotland to enter into discussions with the Scottish government to try to convince it of the error of its ways and the merits of such a scheme.

Signatures by party: Labour 34, Liberal Democrat 1.