§ Mr. Beaneyasked the Minister of Labour whether, in view of the importance of the Government's regional policy, 389W he will publish figures of employees in employment in various industries in the various regions more often than once a year.
§ Mr. HattersleyRegional industrial analyses of employees in employment are compiled annually from counts of National Insurance cards. Supplementary information giving the total number of employees in each region is provided from quarterly counts, but it is considered that the cost of compiling a full industrial analysis each quarter would be too great.
The Ministry does publish monthly estimates of employment in the production industries for Great Britain as a whole. These figures are based on returns from a sample of employers. This is large enough to provide estimates for the country as a whole but not for individual regions.
§ Mr. Beaneyasked the Minister of Labour why he no longer publishes a breakdown of regional employment by industries in as great detail as was formerly given in the tables relating to employment and unemployment in Great Britain; and whether he will now do so.
§ Mr. HattersleyThe publication "Tables relating to employment and unemployment in Great Britain", which showed industrial analyses of regional employment estimates and unemployment figures, was last published in 1951 after which it was discontinued for reasons of economy.
Regional estimates of employees, in employment for mid-1966, analysed industrially, but not by sex, were published in the March, 1967 issue of the Ministry of Labour Gazette. Corresponding estimates for the years 1959 to 1965, and industrial analyses of regional unemployment figures, have not been published because of limitations of space but are available on request.