asked the Secretary of State for Employment how many people have taken advantage of the job transfer scheme; what is the cost to public funds of the scheme; if he is satisfied that there are no abuses of the scheme; and if he envisages that the scheme will be maintained permanently.

I am informed by the Manpower Services Commission that the information on expenditure is not available in the form requested. The total number of moves assisted and the annual expenditure on the Employment Transfer Scheme, the Job Search Scheme, the Key Workers Scheme and the Nucleus Labour Force Scheme since 1st April 1972 are available and are recorded in the table below, together with the number of moves under the Employment Transfer Scheme in brackets.

Period—year ended	Expenditure	Number of moves
	£
31st March 1973	4,463,000	19,406 (18,557)
31st March 1974	4,518,000	15,995 (15,237)
31st March 1975	4,372,000	15,120 (14,333)
31st March 1976	5,965,000	16,143 (15,701)
1st April 1976–30th September 1976.	4,734,000	11,193 (10,955)

Any such scheme which is of a general application and which is designed to help individuals in particular circumstances is open to the risk of attempted abuse Employment Transfer Scheme procedures are designed to keep opportunities for abuse to a minimum without discouraging workers who are entitled to benefit I have no evidence that abuse is on anything other than a very small scale.There are at present no plans to discontinue the Employment Transfer Scheme. The scheme is, however, under consideration by the Employment Service Agency and the Manpower Services Commission at official level as part of a general review of geographical mobility.