Viscountess Astorasked the Minister of Supply how many of the regional advisory committees, comprising representatives of employers and trade unions in industry for conferring with and making representations to the Ministry for speeding-up essential war services, equipment, munitions, etc., have now been formed; how many had held meetings before the end of December; and how many further ones had held meetings before the end of January?
§ Mr. BurginAs I explained in answer to a Question by the hon. and gallant Member for Preston (Captain Cobb) on 25th January, it was intended to set up 23 area advisory committees, of which 11 were to be formed immediately. Of these 11, the committee at Birmingham was inaugurated and held its first meeting on 19th January. The committees at Lincoln, Leicester, Nottingham, Leeds, Sheffield and Bristol have been formed and the Lincoln committee held its first meeting yesterday. The Nottingham committee is meeting to-day, the Bristol committee to-morrow, the Sheffield committee on 6th March, and the Leeds and Leicester committees on 7th March. The Manchester committee will hold its first meeting on 8th March and I hope the committees at Glasgow, Newcastle and Belfast will be able to start work very shortly.
So far as the remaining 12 committees are concerned, nominations of employers and employés are being obtained from the Engineering Employers' Federation and the Trades Union Congress General Council respectively. I hope that it will be possible for these committees to start work in the near future.