§ Mr. Fieldasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list the number and percentage of wages council firms inspected and found to be breaking in some respect of wages council order, the number of workers affected, the number
Year Firms inspected Firms underpaying Percentage of inspected firms underpaying Workers whose wages examined Workers paid arrears Total arrears paid Arrears refused * Number of workers Total amount £ £ 1968 … 50,905 8,795 17.3 265,370 13,417 177,930 — — 1969 … 50,150 8,441 16.8 271,118 13,049 171,667 — — 1970 … 53,941 8,081 15.0 262,279 11,928 157,898 — — 1971 … 51,593 7,675 14.9 253,714 11,968 163,747 — — 1972 … 48,507 9,048 18.7 235,720 14,414 220,084 — — 1973 … 46,840 10,120 21.6 231,070 16,910 306,311 — — 1974 … 41,376 9,084 22.0 204,635 15,368 326,826 — — 1975 … 38,740 11,193 28.8 198,542 22,604 581,906 — — 1976 … 31,842 11,261 35.7 155,239 24,924 942,958 — 120,000 1977 … 30,930 11,557 37.4 150,452 26,920 1,588,248 — 165,000 1978 … 31,762 10,624 33.4 158,101 22,671 1,420,310 — 147,000 1979 … 34,807 10,969 31.5 189,765 22,457 1,511,760 766 143,000 * This information is not available centrally for the whole period, and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.