§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Minister of Labour whether he will publish in HANSARD a table of figures giving the estimated changes in wages and salary scales which will result on Britain's entry into the Common Market; and whether he will publish a table giving the relative wage and salary rates for workers in each of the countries of the European Economic Community compared with those in Great Britain.
§ Mr. HattersleyIt would not be possible to make any useful estimate. Comprehensive information about rates of wages in the United Kingdom is published in the annual volume "Time Rates of Wages and Hours of Work"; weekly rates for manual workers in a large number of individual industries are regularly published in "Statistics on Incomes, Prices, Employment and Production."94W Equivalent data are not available from the usual international sources for the European Economic Community countries with the exception of France for which data are published in the I.L.O. Bulletin of Labour Statistics.
Similar information is not available for salary rates.
§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Minister of Labour, in view of the official figures given for the rise in food prices and cost of living on Great Britain's entry into the European Economic Community, by how much he estimates that wage and salary scales would have to increase to offset these rises in prices and maintain the standard of living of the wage and salary earners.
§ Mr. GunterIt is not possible to make a reliable estimate of the net effect of price rises and price reductions and of changes in other charges on personal incomes.