§ Mr. Fosterasked the Minister of Fuel and Power the output of saleable coal produced in the year ending 19th June, 1943, and the corresponding figure for the preceding 12 months?
Major Lloyd GeorgeThe estimated output of saleable coal produced during the 52 weeks ended 19th June, 1943, excluding the production of opencast workings, was 201,500,000 tons, compared with 205,300,000 tons in the corresponding 52 weeks of 1941–2.
§ Mr. Fosterasked the Minister of Fuel and Power the average number of persons employed in the year ending 19th June, 1943, and in the preceding year, with the average number of days worked per person per week in the two periods and the percentage of persons employed as coal-face workers in the mining industry, giving separate figures for each district?
Major Lloyd GeorgeThe estimated average number of persons employed in the 52 weeks ended 19th June, 1943, was 710,700, compared with 704,400 in the preceding 52 weeks. The estimated average weekly number of shifts worked per wage-earner on colliery books, including those not effectively employed in any week, was 5.25; the Ministry's weekly returns of man-shifts were not available for the whole of the preceding 52 weeks, but calculations based on wages ascertainment results for the 12 months ended 30th June, 1942, show a weekly average per person of 5.37 shifts. Similarly figures relating to coal-face workers are not available in the year 1941–42, but on a man-shift basis the percentages were 36.35 and 36.03 for 1942–3 and 1941–2 respectively. It would not be in the public interest to disclose figures for each district separately.
§ Mr. Rhys Daviesasked the Minister of Fuel and Power whether he will state in statistical form the production in tonnage per man employed in the coalmines of this country during each half year of the war of 1914–18 and the present conflict, 1026W respectively, setting forth percentages so as to provide comparisons as between the two periods; and whether production per man was higher or lower in 1942 than in 1917?
Major Lloyd GeorgeThere is no information relating to the war of 1914–1918 on a basis comparable with the half-yearly statistics now available. Figures of the average output of saleable coal in tons per man per year can be derived from information supplied to the Coal Industry Commission, 1919, and are as follow:
Tons per wage-earner per week. Ditto expressed as percentage of last full pre-war year. 1913 … 5.02 100 1914 … not available 1915 … 5.21 104 1916 … 5.03 100 1917 … 4.79 95 1918 … 4.45 89 My Ministry's figures for 1938–42 are: 1938 … 5.57 100 1939 … 5.81 104 1940 … 5.72 103 1941 … 5.67 102 1942 … 5.50 99