§ 31. Mr. T. WILLIAMSasked the Minister of Labour how many miners were registered as unemployed at the Doncaster and Mexborough Labour Exchanges on the 7th January, 1928, and on the last date for which figures are available?
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDThe numbers of insured persons classified as belonging to the coal-mining industry who were recorded as unemployed in the areas of the Doncaster and Mexborough Employment Exchanges at 19th December, 1927, and 23rd January, 1928, were 981 and 1,431 respectively, including 503 at the earlier date and 857 at the later date who were temporarily stopped from the service of their employers.
§ 32 and 33. Mr. T. WILLIAMSasked the Minister of Labour (1) how many miners were registered as unemployed in Yorkshire in the first week in January, 1928, and on the last date for which figures are available;
(2) how many mine workers were employed in Yorkshire on 1st January, 1927; how many were registered as unemployed; and similar figures for 22nd February, 1928?
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDAs the reply contains a number of figures, I will, with the hon. Member's permission, circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
§ Mr. WILLIAMSSeeing that the number of mine workers thrown out of work has been constantly increasing during the past few weeks, will the Minister advise the Transference Board not to send more miners to an area already seriously affected by unemployment?
§ Sir A. STEEL-MAITLANDAs the hon. Member appears to be under a misapprehension, perhaps he would read the answer and then put down his supplementary question as another question, because he will find from the answer that the number of wage-earners in the colliery areas in Yorkshire has gone up and that the number of unemployed in Yorkshire from that date has gone down.
§ Mr. WILLIAMSIs the Minister not aware that in the reply which he read out it was stated that the number of miners unemployed has increased by about 600 in a period of a month, and is he not aware that that applies to the whole county and not merely to one district?
§ Mr. MACQUISTENHas the Minister observed the news in this morning's papers of a case where miners are unemployed because they refused to allow the safety men to attend to the pit, and it is flooded out?
§ Following is the answer:
§ I am informed by the Secretary for Mines that according to returns received by him the number of wage earners on colliery books in Yorkshire for the week ended 1st January, 1927, was 173,448, as compared with 183,716 for the week ended 18th February, 1928. The number of insured persons classified as belonging to the coal mining industry recorded as unemployed in Yorkshire was 20,318 at 24th January, 1927, as compared with 14,757 at 23rd January, 1928, the latest date for which figures are available. The number of persons temporarily stopped included in these figures were 13,331 and 6,942, respectively. Corresponding figures are not available for the first week in January of either year.