§ Mr. Tierneyasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many firms are known to be on short-time working in the West Midlands region; and how this compares with 1976 and 1975.
§ Mr. GoldingThe official statistics of short-time working relate to numbers of operatives and not to numbers of firms, and so precise figures are not available. However, other information obtained from our Midlands regional office, based on local reports covering all industries and services, suggests that during the first week in June 1977 about 100 establishments were affected by short-time working. The comparable 1976 figure is 309, and for 1975, 592.