§ Mr. Maurice Macmillanasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many workers his Department estimates were, at the latest convenient date, directly covered by closed shop agreements; and how this figure compares with the number of workers covered by such agreements for the most directly comparable date in 1958, 1964, 1970, 1974, 1976 and 1977.
§ Mr. GoldingDr. W. McCarthy's study of "The Closed Shop in Britain" published in 1964, estimated that at that time about 3¾ million workers were covered by closed shop agreements. Reliable estimates are not available for subsequent years, but my Department has recently commissioned research which is designed in part to provide up-to-date information about the present extent of closed shop agreements.