§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Industry (1) if he is satisfied with the quality of the statistics collected by his Department on the engineering profession; and whether he intends making any changes in this regard;
(2) what resources his Department devotes to gathering statistical information on the engineering profession; and if he has any plans to increase these.
§ Mr. Michael MarshallThe Department is currently devoting three and a half man-years of effort per annum to the compilation and analysis of statistics of qualified engineers and scientists. The Department of Employment and the Department of Education and Science are also engaged in this statistical field.
I have no immediate plans to increase the resources employed by the Depart- 330W ment; but the Government will be examining these matters in the light of the report by the committee of inquiry into the engineering profession.