§ Mr. Craigenasked the Secretary of State for Industry how many officials in his Department specialise on work relating to the activities of multinational companies in the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. KaufmanMany officials in the Department, and in other Departments, are concerned with the activities of multinational companies within the framework of their functional or industrial sponsorship responsibilities. A small staff in the Department's industrial and commercial policy division is responsible for co-ordinating work on multinationals including participation in internatonal meetings.
§ Mr. Craigenasked the Secretary of State for Industry how many multinational corporations have operations in the United Kingdom; and what is the total number of persons employed by them.
§ Mr. DeakinsI have been asked to reply.
At the end of 1971, the latest date for which information is available, there were some 4,500 enterprises in the United Kingdom which had either outward or inward direct investment links with overseas companies. Information is not available on the number of ememployees of these enterprises. The only available information on numbers of employees in such enterprises relates to those enterprises in manufacturing industries which are overseas-controlled. In 1968, the latest year for which such information is available, there were 670 565W such enterprises, which employed 704,000 on their manufacturing activities.