HC Deb 16 October 1969 vol 788 cc582-3
13. Mr. Arthur Lewis

asked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity whether she will make a statement on the inquiry into the strike of blast furnacemen at Port Talbot; and whether she will cause this inquiry additionally to investigate why Members of Parliament are kept waiting for more than a month for substantive replies when raising matters connected with industrial disputes.

Mr. Walker

The recommendations of the court of inquiry, which reported on 20th August, were accepted by the British Steel Corporation and the National Union of Blastfurnacemen, and work was resumed on 24th August. I am not aware of any undue delay in replying to questions arising on industrial disputes.

Mr. Lewis

Will the Under-Secretary of State check up with the correspondence which I have had with his Department and with the Chairman of the British Steel Corporation? If Members of Parliament have to wait for one or two months for replies to letters, is it any wonder that workers get fed up trying to get their disputes solved and come out on strike? It is my experience that one has to wait as long as that for replies from Lord Melchett.

Mr. Walker

My Department is not responsible for correspondence between my hon. Friend and the British Steel Corporation. I have instituted my own investigation into this allegation, and the average interval of time elapsing between the dispatch of letters by hon. Members and the dispatch of replies from my Department is about 17 days.

Mr. Heffer

Does not my hon. Friend agree that the report of the inquiry is ample proof that no legislation containing penal clauses could in any way have helped towards the settlement of the dispute? Is not it clear that the way in which we are now proceeding on industrial relations is much more sensible than some proposals we have had in the past and some proposals that we are having from the other side of the House?

Mr. Walker

I do not think the House will want me to comment on the conclusions of Professor Robertson and his colleagues on the outcome of this dispute.

Mr. R. Carr

Will the hon. Gentleman say why, in view of the entirely unsatisfactory state of industrial relations in the steel industry disclosed by the Robertson Report, the whole subject is not being actively referred to the C.I.R.?

Mr. Walker

The right hon. Gentleman knows that the Department has under consideration a list of possible references to the C.I.R. about which it is consulting the C.B.I. and the T.U.C.