§ Mr. Skeetasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will update the cash earnings of coal miners appearing on page 156 of the Employment Gazette of March 1981 as £138 per week plus additional items aggregating £28 per week for the week ended 11 October 1980.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonThe figures referred to are supplied annually by the National Coal Board as part of a special exercise, and comparable later information is not yet available to my Department. However, a broad guide to subsequent changes is provided by later information from the average earnings index, covering all employees in mining and quarrying, which shows an increase of around 10 per cent. in weekly cash earnings between the fourth quarter of 1980 and the first quarter of 1981, following the implementation of the annual pay settlement for coal miners at the end of December 1980.