HC Deb 11 February 1992 vol 203 cc781-2
3. Mr. Knox

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many days were lost in industrial disputes in the most recent 12-month period for which figures are available.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment (Mr. Eric Forth)

There were 765,000 working days lost in the 12 months to November 1991. This is the lowest total for the same period for more than 70 years.

Mr. Knox

Does my hon. Friend agree that that figure is a vindication of the Government's step-by-step approach to the reform of industrial relations? Does he further agree that the time has come for a period of consolidation?

Mr. Forth

My hon. Friend is correct. Those dramatic figures reflect several things, not least the steady and progressive reform that the Government have undertaken in industrial relations. That reform has also given us one of the most successful inward investment records of any country, certainly in the European Community and arguably in the world. Who can dispute the fact that, if the figures were not as I have just announced and if industrial relations had not improved, we could not have attracted our record level of inward investment from across the world? That investment has created many well-paid and well-founded jobs for our people.

Mr. Lewis

Should not those figures be considered alongside the 352 million lost days which have been engineered by the Government since 1979?

Mr. Forth

I do not know what the hon. Gentleman means, but I regret that, as ever—and typically of Labour Members—the hon. Gentleman seems to glory in gloom and despondency in identifying the more negative aspects of things, rather than looking at the positive. As a country, how can we expect to attract inward investment and have the confidence of overseas investors if we hear such remarks from Labour Members?

Mr. Dickens

Do not the figures also herald the demise of the flying pickets, rent-a-mobs, people with crowbars, people who fire ball bearings at horses and place cheesewire across the throats of horses and people who drop concrete slabs off bridges, all of which would stop inward investment into the United Kingdom? Those days have gone, thanks to our measures.

Mr. Forth

Those days have gone only so long as a Government are in power who are determined to continue a regime of common sense and reasonable and balanced industrial relations. If there were ever a Government who had a different view of industrial relations and a different relationship with the trade unions, who knows whether events such as my hon. Friend mentioned might not occur again?

Mr. Beggs

Does the Minister agree that, as Northern Ireland has the fewest days lost through stoppages or industrial action and is governed by the same industrial relations legislation as Great Britain, it should be in a special position to attract inward investment?

Mr. Forth

Yes. I welcome the fact that the hon. Gentleman has brought to the attention of the House and of the world outside the fact that Northern Ireland has so much to offer as an area for investment, both from the rest of the United Kingdom and from beyond. That, together with the strenuous efforts made by everyone in Northern Ireland at local and provincial levels, means that we can look to the future with some confidence, and I am delighted to endorse what the hon. Gentleman said.