§ 18. Mr. G. Thomasasked the Minister of Labour the number of working hours lost in Wales due to short-time working during the period October, 1950, to October, 1951; and during the period October, 1951, to October, 1952.
§ Mr. WatkinsonAs the reply includes a number of figures, I will, if I may, circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.
§ Mr. ThomasAs the Question calls for two sets of figures only, can the Minister tell me whether there is an increase or a decrease here?
§ Mr. WatkinsonAgain I am very glad to be able to tell the hon. Member that it is a decrease. I will give him two figures; the figure for 30th August this year was 32,000, and the figure for the comparative period in 1951 was 45,000.
§ Mr. ThomasIs the Minister aware that we shall note with pleasure the advantage that Wales has compared with England in this matter?
Following is the reply:Statistics of the total number of working hours lost owing to short-time working are not available. Employers in manufacturing industries, however, are asked to give information on their quarterly returns about short-time working in the weeks to which the returns relate, and the figures for quarterly dates since September, 1950, are given below:
NUMBER OF WORKING HOURS LOST OWING TO SHORT-TIME WORKING AT MANUFACTURING ESTABLISHMENTS IN WALES FROM WHICH RETURNS WERE RECEIVED. Week ending 30th September, 1950 17,710 30th December, 1950 74,744 31st March, 1951 8,678 30th June, 1951 11,584 22nd September, 1951 45,748 26th January, 1952 80,669 29th March, 1952 60,314 24th May, 1952 147,596 30th August, 1952 32,088