§ Mr. R. Gibsonasked the Minister of Labour whether he has any statement to make regarding the 391 persons registered as unemployed in the shipbuilding and ship-repairing industry in the Greenock area as at 15th July, 1940?
§ Mr. BevinThe number of persons in the shipbuilding and ship-repairing industry registered at Greenock as unemployed continues to fall. The figure of 391 at 15th July, which represented a reduction of 100 as compared with a month earlier, fell to 342 at 12th August. This figure, which covers unemployed persons in all occupations attached to the industry, included a large proportion of labourers and persons engaged in ancillary occupations as well as of elderly persons. The reduction in the numbers unemployed is due in some measure to the activities of the Local Panel composed of representatives of employers and workpeople which has been engaged in reviewing the men in the main shipbuilding occupations on the register with a view to getting them reabsorbed into employment.