Paper and Board Industry

HC Deb 26 March 1979 vol 965 cc35-7W

Mr. Moate

asked the Secretary of State for Industry if he is satisfied with the present trends in the figures for the collection and recycling of waste paper by the United Kingdom paper and board industry; if he will publish the most

The small firms centres are located at Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Luton, Manchester, Newcastle and Nottingham.

The counselling service in Scotland is operated through the Scottish Development Agency and in Wales through the Welsh Development Agency.

It is estimated that the small firms service in the financial year 1978–79 will cost just under £1 million.

Mr. Welsh

asked the Secretary of State for Industry what figures he has to show the cost per job created in the small and large industry sectors.

Mr. Les Huckfield

Statistics relating to offers of regional selective assistance made under section 7 of the Industry Act 1972 in the period from 1 March 1974 to 31 December 1978 are set out in the table below.

recent figures, comparing them with previous years; and what Government encouragement is being given in this connection.

Mr. Les Huckfield

Statistics of usage of waste paper by the paper and board industry are published in Business Monitor PM481. Statistics of actual collections are not available but approximations are given in the following table:

	United Kingdom mill consumption of waste paper (million tonnes)	Approximate United Kingdom collections (million tonnes)
1972	1.9	1.9
1973	2.1	2.1
1974	2.1	2.2
1975	1.7	1.8
1976	2.1	2.0
1977	2.1	2.1
1978	2.1	2.1

Bearing in mind the slow recovery in consumption of paper and board since 1975, the industry's recycling of waste paper, now representing 50 per cent. of its total fibre usage, is a very commendable achievement.

My Department is providing £23 million of financial assistance to encourage the industry to invest in new plant and technology to use still more waste paper. The projects being assisted will at full capacity use an additional ½ million tonnes or more of waste paper per year. Most have yet to come into full operation.