§ Mr. Trotterasked the Secretary of State for Industry in which activities other than shipbuilding, ship repairing and marine engineering British Shipbuilders is employed.
§ Mr. ButcherBritish Shipbuilders' main subsidiaries are also engaged in offshore work, slow and medium speed diesel engine manufacture, manufacture of weaponry and various general engineering products not for marine use, and the provision of training services. The range of the subsidiaries' products and services is set out in British Shipbuilders' report and accounts. Small subsidiaries of the main companies are involved in a range of miscellaneous activities.
§ Mr. Trotterasked the Secretary of State for Industry how many people are at present employed in shipbuilding in the United Kingdom and, so far as the information is available to him, in each of the other principal shipbuilding countries; and whether he will provide figures showing the change in the number so employed over as long a period as is praticable.
§ Mr. ButcherSuch international information as is readily available relates to employment on building new merchant ships and is as follows:
39W
Number directly employed on building new merchant ships '000, end period 1978 1979 1980 1981 West Germany 53.1 51.5 50.5 51.8 France 25.6 24.0 23.6 23.9 Italy 16.3 15.2 14.5 13.8 Netherlands 39.3 35.8 34.4 35.1 Spain 22.5 20.6 20.0 22.3 Finland 15.5 17.0 17.5 17.7 Norway 16.3 13.0 13.0 12.9
1978 1979 '000, 1980 end period 1981 Sweden 14.8 12.9 11.7 10.4 Japan 137.0 120.0 113.0 114.0 United Kingdom 40.7 34.0 25.3 25.3 Source: OECD
Note: Although conceptually these figures relate to employees directly employed on new merchant shipbuildng work, their basis may differ from country to country.
§ Mr. Trotterasked the Secretary of State for Industry what has been the amount of Government finance granted to British Shipbuilders in each year since its formation, expressed in terms of the average per employee at the end of each year.
§ Mr. ButcherThe following table gives details of support for BS through the national loans fund, public dividend capital, subsidies under the Industry Act 1972 and payments made under the shipbuilding redundancy payments scheme, together with numbers employed and the average support per BS employee.
£ million 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 NLF and PDC — 55* 181*† 110 107 Subsidies under sections 7 and 8 of the Industry Act 1972 27.4 10.6 31.2 39.9 45.9 Construction grants under section 11 of the 1972 Act 0.3 0.3 0.1 0.1 0.3 Shipbuilding redundancy payments — 4.7 15.5 20.1 14.4 27.7 70.6 227.8 170.1 167.6 British Shipbuilders Employment ('000s) 86 82.5 73 68 66 Average finance per employee (£) 322 856 3,121 2,501 2,539 * National loans fund advanced on an interim basis.
† Net. All outstanding NLF loans were repaid in full with interest on 21 December 1979 and were replaced by PDC.
§ Mr. Trotterasked the Secretary of State for Industry how many people are at present employed by British Shipbuilders; and how many were employed at its formation.
§ Mr. ButcherI understand from British Shipbuilders that it employed 64,611 staff this October compared to 87,470 staff at vesting day in July 1977.