HC Deb 27 June 1983 vol 44 cc334-5
6. Mr. Ioan Evans

asked the Secretary of State for Wales how many people were in employment in Wales, Mid-Glamorgan and the Cynon Valley in May 1979 and at the latest available date.

Mr. Nicholas Edwards

Comprehensive information in the form requested in not available. Quarterly estimates of employees in employment, which exclude the self-employed, gave a figure for Wales of 1,029,000 in June 1979 and 884,000 in December 1982. Similar information is not yet available below the all-Wales level.

Mr. Evans

In view of those figures, which show a massive loss of employment in Wales during the period of the last Government, and as unemployment is at its highest level in the history of the south Wales valleys, will the Minister resist any proposals to close pits in Wales and bring pressure on the Coal Board to keep open all those pits where there are known stocks of coal?

Mr. Edwards

As the hon. Gentleman should be aware by now, the Government, rightly or wrongly, have closed fewer pits and put fewer miners out of work than their Labour predecessors. That has been the record since the war. However, I can give no undertakings that individual pits, some of which are making substantial losses, will not have to be closed in the next year or two years, because, as I have repeatedly told the House, these decisions should be taken by the National Coal Board and the normal process of consultation will take place.

Mr. Rowlands

Has the right hon. Gentleman read the boardroom reports of the Nissan car company this weekend? What hope can he give for a large Nissan plant in Wales? If there is not much hope, what will he do about replacing the 5,000 jobs that he has dangled before the people of Wales for the past one and half to two years?

Mr. Edwards

I have not dangled any hopes of a Nissan plant before the people of Wales. Labour Members have repeatedly raised the question of Nissan, but I have always made it clear that it will be a matter for the company. I have read the reports. I have no information other than that which is available to the hon. Gentleman. However, I can tell him that the new inward investment organisation— WINvest— has had discussions with 30 overseas companies during April and May, including discussions about several important high-technology products.