21. Mr. Slaterasked the Paymaster-General what projects of research on human problems within the coal mining industry are at present being undertaken; and to what extent they receive assistance from his Department.
§ Sir I. HorobinThe National Coal Board now has in hand 12 projects of research on human and medical problems in the coal mining industry. Government Departments are co-operating in several of these projects.
Mr. SlaterIs the Minister aware that in a major industry like the mining industry one is bound to have these human problems and that everything ought to be done to accommodate the people inside the industry when we are faced with these great issues. One has 14 to admit that there is no easy answer to these problems, but does the Minister not think that his Department ought to take a greater interest in this matter than it has been doing in the last few years?
§ Sir I. HorobinI am not sure that there is any evidence that the Department under different parties has not taken very active steps in this matter. I should have thought on the whole that, since nationalisation, the record of the coal industry in these matters was one of the more satisfactory sides of its affairs.