HC Deb 28 May 1971 vol 818 cc240-1W
Mr. Mason

asked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will give the latest figures of unemployed coalminers in the Barnsley area and in the South Yorkshire coalfield, respectively, specifying how many of these are 55 years of age and over.

Mr. Dudley Smith

At 10th May the provisional numbers of males last employed in coalmining who were registered as unemployed in the area covered by the Barnsley employment exchange and in the Yorkshire coalfield subdivision of the Yorkshire and Humberside region were 526 and 2,873, respectively.

A special quarterly return in March, 1971, of colliery workers unemployed through the contraction of the coalmining industry showed that in the Barnsley employment exchange area and in the Yorkshire coalfield sub-division there were, respectively, 303 and 1,593 such unemployed persons aged 55 years and over.