Mr. Batesasked the Secretary of State for Industry (1) what figures he has of the industrial stock of steel, plastic and fibre drums for each of the 12 months until the latest date for which figures are available;
(2)what was the production of steel, plastic and fibre drums for each of the 12 months until the latest date for which figures are available; and what estimates he has for the future production of this industry;
(3)what was the number of persons employed by the drum container manufacturing industry in each of the 12 months until the latest date for which figures are available; and what estimates he has for future employment in this industry.
§ Mr. Michael MeacherI regret that figures of employment, stocks and production are not available, but details of 189W quarterly sales by United Kingdom manufacturers of "New barrels, kegs and drums of wrought iron and steel" and "Closed transit containers of plastics (including bottles, jerry cans, drums and barrels)" are published in Business Monitors PQ 399.6 and PQ 496 respectively. Sales information for fibre drums is not available.
No official estimates of the future production of this industry are made.