§ Mr. Alan Williamsasked the Secretary of State for Wales what consultation his Department has had about British Coal's policy of concentrating the sale of Welsh coal to Ireland through a single port; whether there has been any discussion of financial incentives from British Coal to encourage investment in facilities at a single port site; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Nicholas EdwardsThere have been no such consultations or discussions with my Department. These are commercial matters for British Coal.
§ 1982. Mr. Barry Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Wales how many people in Wales have been unemployed for five years or more; what proportion of the total unemployed these people constitute; and what proportion they constituted in November (a) 1985, (b) 1984, (c) 1983 and (d)
§ Mr. Nicholas EdwardsIn October 1986 there were 14,897 claimants in Wales who had been unemployed for over five years. The proportion which this represents of the total unemployed is given in the table below, along with percentages for previous years. The figures are produced quarterly and have been given for October in each year, the nearest month available to that requested. The "over five years" duration analysis was not carried out in 1982.
Unemployed over 5 years as a per cent. of the total Year (at October) per cent. 1983 2.9 1984 3.8 1985 6.2 1986 8.6 The figures may be slightly affected by the change in compilation in March 1986, which involved delaying the count of unemployed claimants each month by two weeks to avoid over-recording.