§ The Earl of Lauderdaleasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the value in current money terms of orders for equipment including ships, platforms, drilling rigs and modules for use in exploring or developing the United Kingdom continental shelf which is known to the Offshore Supplies Office to have been placed in the United Kingdom in the years 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980 and up to date in 1981; and what was the number of workers consequently employed in each of those years.
§ Lord SkelmersdaleThe United Kingdom share of orders for services and equipment supplied for the exploration and development of the United Kingdom Continental Shelf since 1975 is as follows:
Year Orders placed £m Revalued to 1980 prices £m 1975 613 1,187 1976 591 1,019 1977 806 1,257 1978 1,037 1,460 1979 2,111 2,566 1980 1,679 1,679 Statistics are not available of the numbers employed throughout the United Kingdom in activities related to the UKCS, but employment offshore in the years concerned was as follows:—
1975 6,000 1976 9,200 1977 12,100 1978 12,500 1979 10,500 1980 22,000 Figures for 1981 will be published in the Secretary of State for Energy's Report to Parliament on the Development of the Oil and Gas Resources of the United kingdom 1982. Estimates by the Manpower Services 274WA Commission of employment in Scotland by companies wholly related to the offshore oil industry suggest that the numbers employed increased from about 30,000 in mid-1975 to about 60,500 by mid-1981.