§ Mr. Arnoldasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many people are currently employed in the civil engineering sector in the North-West; and how this figure compares with December 1981.
§ Mr. AlisonMy Department's employment statistics are analysed according to the 1968 Standard Industrial Classification—SIC—which does not separately distinguish the civil engineering sector. Order XX of the SIC provides information for the construction industry as a whole and the provisional number of employees in employment in that industry in the North-West region at June 1982, the latest available, was 111,000. The corresponding figure at December 1981 was 114,000.
Order XX of the SIC comprises the construction and repairing of buildings, roads, bridges, and so on and civil engineering work, such as laying sewers, gas or water mains, and so on. Also included are the building and civil engineering establishments of Government Departments and local authorities.