§ Mr. Saltasked the Minister of Labour if he can provide any statistics as to the present number of qualified scientific and technological persons in Great Britain; and to what extent such information is available to the Central Register.
§ Mr. E. Bevin, pursuant to his reply [OFFICIAL REPORT, 24th Febuary, 1944; col. 989, Vol. 397] supplied the following statement:
Under the Specified Class of Persons (Registration) (No. 1 and No. 2) Orders of July, 1940 (S.R. & O. 1221 and 1293) persons in Great Britain with professional qualifications as chemists or physicists, as civil, electrical, mechanical or other engineers, and as quantity surveyors, were required to register with the Central Register of the Ministry of Labour and National Service. Over 135,000 persons of these classes are thus registered.
With the assistance of the professional institutions the Universities and other bodies, a voluntary registration which is believed to be almost complete has been carried out by the Central Register of persons in Great Britain with other professional qualifications, including mathematicians, scientists of various categories, architects and surveyors, valuers and land agents. Nearly 40,000 such persons are registered.
It would not be in the public interest to give the number of persons registered as possessing each separate type of professional qualification.