§ Commander BELLAIRSasked the President of the Board of Trade whether he has any information as to the number of firms or companies, and the number of persons employed, in which profit-sharing was practised for the latest available year as compared with the figures of sixty-two firms and 73,297 to 79,660 persons for 1909; and how many of these undertakings were gas manufacturers?
§ Sir R. HORNEI have been asked to answer this question. The latest complete figures appeared in the "Labour Gazette" for November, 1915, and relate to the 30th June, 1915. At that date there were 153 firms in the United Kingdom (other than co-operative societies) which had some form of profit-sharing or co-partnership in operation. These firms had an average of 141,112 persons in permanent employment during the twelve months preceding the declaration of profits in 1914, while the maximum number of casual employés on any one day was 4,892. The number of gas companies included in this total was forty-one, of which three have since been merged in other profit-sharing gas undertakings, one has been terminated in consequence of the municipalisation of the 767W undertaking, and one has been abandoned owing to the dissatisfaction of the work-people.