§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish a table showing the total number of staff employed by local authorities in the United Kingdom, including water boards, and for each year from 1960 to 1979.
§ Mr. KingI refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave him on 4 December 1979—[Vol. 975, c. 151–521—with regard to local authority employees, and to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for the Environment to my hon. Friend the Member for Bridlington (Mr. Townsend) on 29 November 1979—[Vol. 974, c. 794]—with regard to water authority employees. Separate figures for the water industry prior to 1974 are not available on a comparable basis.