§ 22. Mr. F. Willeyasked the President of the Board of Trade what proportion of the Government orders placed in the North-East Development Area during the six months ended 31st March, 1952, relate to engineering and electrical work.
§ Mr. P. ThorneycroftThe information for which the hon. Member asks is not readily available and could not be obtained without an expenditure of time and labour which could not be justified.
§ Mr. WilleyWithout pressing the right hon. Gentleman on that matter, may I ask him to pay attention to the fact that there is a feeling in the North-East that they are not getting a fair proportion of these types of contracts? These particular trades are rather slacker than we expected them to be.
§ Mr. ThorneycroftI will call the attention of my right hon. Friend to that point.