§ Mr. Wigginasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will publish in the OFFICIAL REPORT a table showing the numbers of seamen employed in the Merchant Service in each of the last 10 years, the estimated total wages bill in 341W each year, and also this last figure adjusted to a similar value of money using a convenient base date.
§ Mr. NobleThe number of United Kingdom resident seamen employed in the Merchant Service at the end of each of the last 12 calendar years is shown in the table below. The figures include United Kingdom resident seamen employed from time to time in foreign vessels. There is no available information from which the estimated total wages bills could be reliably estimated.
1960 … … … 145,040 1961 … … … 146,769 1962 … … … 134,592 1963 … … … 125,454 1964 … … … 123,077 1965 … … … 119,553 1966 … … … 113,276 1967 … … … 107,689 1968 … … … 99,703 1969 … … … 98,349 1970 … … … 99,180 1971 … … … 96,287