§ 5. Mr. Boydenasked the President of the Board of Trade what is the length of advance notice given to his Department of the closures of collieries.
§ Mr. N. MacphersonFrom a few weeks to about a year, according to circumstances, from the time when it is definitely decided to close a pit.
§ Mr. BoydenThis is nothing like enough time to bring new industry to an area to replace employment lost by a closure. Will the hon. Gentleman look into the matter and see whether he can improve the notice he receives about this sort of thing?
§ Mr. MacphersonMy right hon. Friend is in very close touch with the Minister of Power, but there is a difficulty in that very often a final decision to close a pit is not reached until a relatively late stage. On the other hand, most of the areas in which there are pits threatened with closure lie in development districts so that there is no very great problem and we are not greatly handicapped by this at the moment.
§ Mr. JayHas there not been a longstanding arrangement for years between the Board of Trade and the Ministry of Fuel and Power, and now the Ministry of Power, that the Board of Trade had long notice of any closure? Is the hon. Gentleman telling us now that there may be cases where only a few weeks' notice is given to the Board of Trade?
§ Mr. MacphersonWe receive as long notice as possible. What I say is that in the nature of the case a final decision to close a pit is not necessarily taken with long notice. It may not be possible to give long notice. Circumstances may change for a variety of reasons and the notice may be quite short.
§ Mr. JayAre final decisions being taken almost on the spur of the moment, with no more than a few weeks' notice? If that is so, unemployment is inevitable.
§ Mr. MacphersonThis can work both ways. In some cases it is decided to keep a colliery open although previously it had been thought that it would close. This happened, for example, in relation to Roslin colliery in Midlothian quite recently.