Welsh Affairs

The Government can help in a variety of ways not only companies, but the people who need retraining in the course of the job itself or, if the business unfortunately goes under, training for other jobs. There is a variety of schemes. If the hon. Gentleman looks at ““Real help now””, he will see at least 30-odd schemes that can help people in different ways. Ultimately, of course, some companies will not survive, but that might well happen in other times too. The question then is whether there are alternatives for people. I know that it is not particularly easy in rural Wales because of the nature of the communities there, but it is important always to ensure that, whatever happens, we help the person by retraining and re-skilling or by finding them another job. That is why I touched on the extra money that the Department for Work and Pensions is putting into Jobcentre Plus. There are still roughly 20,000 vacancies in Wales. Of course, they do not always fit in terms of geography and type of job when a company goes under, but it is worth remembering that there are jobs out there that we need to tap into.