asked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he will arrange for the publication of the criteria used to determine the allocation of money from central funds to individual training boards.

I am informed by the Manpower Services Commission, which is responsible for the allocation of Exchequer resources to industry training boards, that the two main criteria used in considering boards' requests for financial support are that: —

(i) priority should be given to proposals which support the Government's industrial strategy or otherwise provide for opportunities to train in skills of importance from a national point of view.

(ii) there should be firm evidence that boards and their respective industries are doing all they can from their own resources to meet the objectives set out in the MSC's "Training for skills" report to increase the quality and quantity of training and put industries' training arrangements on to a more comprehensive and long-term basis.

The detailed criteria to be used under the "Training for skills" programme are set out in paragraph 5.7 of the MSC's "Training for skills" report which was published in December 1977. The criteria used in previous years were published in the MSC's Annual Reports for 1974–75—page 18—and 1975–76—page 16.