78. Mr. H. Wilsonasked the President of the Board of Trade if he has noted the intention of the machine tool industry to discontinue the collection of monthly figures of new machine tool orders; and, in view of the importance of these figures for the preparation of the Economic Survey and the preparation of forward estimates of the rate of industrial expansion, what steps he proposes to take to acquire the relevant information.
§ Sir D. EcclesIt is true that the collection of the particular figures to which the right hon. Gentleman refers is being discontinued but, as part of a new comprehensive statistical inquiry by the Board of Trade over a very wide range of engineering industries, including the production of machine tools, monthly figures are now obtained and published of orders on hand and of production. These are a substantial addition to the economic information available to the Government and to the public for all the purposes mentioned by the right hon. Gentleman. Monthly figures of net new orders of machine tools are being compiled and published.