§ Baroness WOOTTON of ABINGERasked Her Majesty's Government:
(1) Whether they will give estimates of the numbers of men and of women who are covered by each of the councils established under the Wages Council Act;
(2) Whether they will give for the latest year for which figures are available the numbers of men and of women who have made inquiries about their entitlements under Wages Council regulations and the numbers of those men and of those women who were considered to be "in scope" of Wages Councils;
(3) In how many cases in each year since 1963 the Wages Inspectorate has initiated civil or criminal proceedings under the Wages Councils Acts to secure payment of arrears, and how many of these cases involved underpayment of women; and
(4) Whether they will give for each year since 1963 (i) the numbers of firms inspected by wages inspectors under the Wages Council Act; (ii) the numbers of male and of female employees whose wages were examined; (iii) the number of each sex who received arrears; and (iv) the amount of arrears paid to male and to female employees respectively.
Lord WALLACE of COSLANYFollowing is the information. Separate figures for men and women are not available.
1149WA(1)
Wages Council Approximate No. of workers covered Aerated Waters (E and W) 18,000 Aerated Waters (Scotland) 1,500 Boot and Shoe Repairing 10,000 Button Manufacturing 4,000 Coffin Furniture and Cerement-Making 600 Corset 16,000 Cotton Waste Reclamation 750 Dressmaking andWomen'sLight Clothing (E and W) 125,000 DressmakingandWomen'sLight Clothing (Scotland) 9,000 Flax and Hemp 2,500 Fur 7,000 General Waste Materials Reclamation 20,000 Hairdressing Undertakings 135,000 Hat, Cap and Millinery (Great Britain) 7,500 Lace Finishing 1,000 Laundry 65,000 Licensed Non-residential Establishment 350,000 Licensed Residential Establishment and Licensed Restaurant 390,000 Linen and Cotton Handkerchief and Household Goods and Linen Piece Goods 6,500 Made-up Textiles 5,500 Ostrich and Fancy Feather and Artificial Flower 750 Perambulator and Invalid Carriage 3,000 Pin, Hook and Eye and Snap Fastener 750 Ready-made and Wholesale Bespoke Tailoring 120,000 Retail Bespoke Tailoring (Great Britain) 7,500 Retail Book selling and Stationery Trades 30,000 Retail Bread and Flour Confectionery Trade (E and W) 62,000 Retail Bread and Flour Confectionery Trade (Scotland) 9,000 Retail Drapery, Outfitting and Foot-wear Trades 400,000 Retail Food Trades (E and W) 300,000 Retail Food Trades (Scotland) 35,000 Retail Furnishing and Allied Trades 200,000 Retail Newsagency, Tobacco and Confectionery Trades (E and W) 85,000 Retail Newsagency, Tobacco and Confectionery Trades(Scotland) 13,000 Road Haulage 210,000 Rope, Twine and Net 5,000 Rubber Proofed Garment Making Industry 1,000 Sack and Bag 2,500 Shirt making 25,000 Toy Manufacturing 30,000 Unlicensed Place of Refreshment 130,000 Wholesale Mantle and Costume 64,000 TOTAL 2,908,350 (2) 296,159 in 1977, of which 219,799 were within scope of wages councils:
1150WA(3)
Year No. of prosecutions No. of civil proceedings 1977 7 4 1976 — 7 1975 2 8 1974 2 2 1973 — 2 1972 — 2 1971 — 1 1970 1 3 1969 — 3 1968 — 2 1967 — 3 1966 1 3 1965 1 2 1964 6 1 1963 11 — (4)
Year No. of firms inspected No. of workers whose wages were examined No. receiving arrears Amount of arrears paid £ 1963 49,326 277,757 15,151 149,094 1964 48,606 271,344 14,745 161,408 1965 49,827 276,346 15,339 185,993 1966 51,108 282,757 15,720 183,665 1967 49,729 264,115 14,677 181,946 1968 50,905 265,370 13,417 177,930 1969 50,156 271,125 13,052 171,702 1970 53,941 262,279 11,928 157,898 1971 51,593 253,714 11,968 163,747 1972 48,507 235,720 14,414 241,481 1973 46,840 231,070 16,910 306,311 1974 41,376 204,635 15,368 326,826 1975 38,740 198,542 22,604 581,906 1976 31,607 154,475 24,831 940,539 1977 30,930 150,452 26,920 1,588,248