§ 3. Mr. Milneasked the Parliamentary Secretary for Science as representing the Lord President of the Council, what reasons the Lord President has discovered in his examination of the problems of the North-East for the rise in unemployment figures over the last few years.
§ Mr. Denzil FreethUnemployment in the North-East showed a downward trend from 1959 to mid-1961 but has been rising sharply since then. This is partly due to general slackness in the economy which has affected the demand for labour over the whole country. Special factors in the North-East have been reduced activity in the basic industries such as shipbuilding and ship-repairing, heavy engineering and iron and steel, the contraction of the coal-mining industry and a falling-off in construction work.