§ 4. Mr. William Edwardsasked the Secretary of State for Wales what are the main sources of data available to him for making economic analyses of industrial development in Wales.
§ Mr. Peter Thomas:Statistics and periodic reports collected by my own Department or made available by other Government Departments and nationalised industries. Other studies such as those undertaken by the Welsh Council, the C.B.I. and Professor Revell's recent work on the Social Accounts of Wales are both welcome and valuable.
§ Mr. Edwards:Is the Secretary of State not aware that he does not have under his control a Department and officials capable of giving him a daily submission of meaningful data in relation to industrial development in Wales, and is not this omission reflected in answers given to this House consistently during the last 12 months, since they give us totally misleading information about projected industrial development in Wales?
§ Mr. Thomas:Naturally, my Department relies on information which is collected by other Departments. I am in no doubt that in certain respects more data could usefully be collected, but the information given to us by other Departments is given to us very quickly, and my Department is well organised to make full use of that information.