§ Mr. Thurnhamasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will now give details of the responses to the consultative paper on wages councils.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyThere were 792 responses received. They were classified according to their support for (1) abolition; (2) major reform; (3) retention essentially of the present arrangements. On this basis the outcome was as follows:
(1) (2) (3) Organisations Employer organisations with seats on wages councils 13 34 4 Other employer organisations 14 22 — Worker organisations with seats on wages councils — — 8 Other worker organisations — 4 32 Other organisations 3 16 77 Individuals Individual employers in wages council industries 30 29 11 Individual workers in wages council industries* 1 1 287 Other individuals 11 20 175 * Includes petitions counted as single responses.