Mr. R. Duckworthasked the Lord President of the Council whether, as the Report of the Industrial Research Board is unable to state whether reduced working hours increase or decrease output and utter a warning against reckless assumptions, he will arrange for the Medical Research Council to continue its investigations along the same lines.
§ Mr. AttleeThe Industrial Health Research Board of the Medical Research Council propose to investigate this subject further as opportunity permits. As mentioned in the Report, it has already been firmly established that, except for brief periods of special emergency, working hours in manual operations should not exceed 60–65 for men and 55–60 for women. The point not yet decided conclusively is whether reduction of working hours below those limits has a further beneficial effect which is measurable in terms of output. The Report indicates the practical difficulties in reaching a clear decision on this question by investigations carried out under the unstable conditions of war-time.