§ Mr. R. Daviesasked the Minister of Fuel and Power the number of women and girls employed at the pit heads at any convenient date in 1939 and on the last date for which statistics are available; in which coalfields they are employed; whether girls are allowed to enter this form of employment direct from school; and whether he can state in what other coal producing countries this practice prevails and in which it is prohibited respectively.
§ Mr. T. SmithThe number of women of 20 years of age and over employed on other than clerical occupations at mines governed by the Coal Mines Act was 1,329 in December, 1939, and 1,728 in December, 1943, and the numbers under 20 were 1,003 and 941 respectively. At the present time a few women and girls are recorded as being so employed in nearly every coalfield, but the majority are in Scotland, Lancashire and Cheshire, Durham and Cumberland. They are all employed on surface work. As regards the last part of the Question, I understand that women are employed in mines to a considerable extent in the U.S.S.R., in India and in Japan. I have no information as to the existence of prohibitions on such employment in particular countries.