§ Mr. Sharpasked the Minister of Fuel and Power how many members of the staff of his Department are employed full-time in devising, or advising and assisting in, the application of methods for the more efficient use of fuel; and if he will give details of the most successful features of their work during the last 12 months.
§ Mr. ShinwellThe total number of staff engaged full-time on this work is 173, including 79 engineers and 25 stoker demonstrators. During the last twelve months this staff has helped industrial undertakings to maintain or increase production with reduced or down-graded supplies of fuel. In this period the Ministry's engineers and the members of Regional Fuel Efficiency Committees, who give them valuable assistance in a part-time capacity, have visited 12,700 individual firms; the stoker demonstrators have given numerous demonstrations to boiler-house personnel on the firing floor. Consumers have also been advised in connection with the design or extension 177W of factories. In addition, assistance has peen given in the conversion from coal to oil, where this is being carried out. In the domestic sphere local authorities and others have been advised on the selection of improved fuel burning appliances and householders have been given advice on how to make the best use of these appliances and on other methods of saving fuel. I am sending my hon. Friend copies of two recent issues of the Fuel Efficiency News, which contain further particulars of the work of this Branch in my Department.