§ Mr. Brooman-Whiteasked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many new factories have been established in the Highland Development Area in 1951, 1952 and to the latest available date in the present year; and what is the average number of people employed in these factories.
§ Mr. P. ThorneycroftI have been asked to reply. According to the Board's industrial development records, which relate only to new factories and extensions of over 5,000 sq. ft., no new factories of16W this size or above were established in the years mentioned, though two small extensions were completed, one in 1952 and the other in 1953. There are no official statistics about factories of less than 5,000 sq. ft. I regret that I could not properly give figures of the numbers employed in the two extensions, since this would in effect disclose information about the individual firms, but I can say that the number of people employed is small.