§ Mr. Woofasked the Secretary of State for Employment what was the figure for the most recent date of the working population in local authority services; and how this compares with the figures for March 1972 and 1973.
§ Mr. John FraserInformation is available for June each year. At June 1974, about 2,584,000 people in Great Britain were employed by local authorities. The figures for 1973 and 1972 were 2,587,000 and 2,474,000 respectively.
The figures for 1974 are not comparable with those for previous years. As part of the April 1974 reorganisation, the responsibility for certain items of work, for example, some health services, was transferred to other organisations. The statistics for all years exclude the police force and traffic wardens.