§ Mr. Wigleyasked the Secretary of State for Industry if he will publish a table in the Official Report showing the gross fixed assets per employee in the steel industries of the United Kingdom, France, West Germany, Italy, Holland, the United States of America and Japan, together with the corresponding level of steel production expressed in tonnes of steel per man-year.
§ Mr. Les HuckfieldInformation on gross fixed assets is not available. The following table gives crude steel production in tonnes per man year in 1976, the latest date for which information is available:
241W
United Kingdom 125* France 221 West Germany 131 Italy 159 Netherlands 207 United States 174 Japan 245 * Employment as defined for the iron and steel industry in the Treaty of Paris. The employment figures used to prepare this table are those published in "The Steel Market in 1976" by the Economic Commission for Europe—ECE/Steel/17. They reflect differences in the structure and organisation of the steel industry in the various countries as well as practical differences in the collection of the information. The absolute level of the figures of output per head therefore is not directly comparable between countries.