§ 26. Mr. J. H. Osbornasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will now take steps to record and determine the number of working days lost through lock-outs and lay offs because of non-availability of materials and components from suppliers affected by unofficial, as well as official, strikes.
§ Mr. BryanNo. The practical difficulty of collecting comprehensive statistics of this kind was explained in some detail in my Department's evidence to the Royal Commission. Broad estimates can be made for known instances in the motor industry, but only because a few large firms form such a considerable part of this industry. Elsewhere, repercussions from stoppages are often so widely diffused as to preclude satisfactory identification.