§ Mr. Lawlerasked the Paymaster General if he will give a breakdown of the number of strikes and days lost by region for each year since 1979, indicating separately those attributable to the miners' dispute.
§ Mr. LeeThe information requested for all industries and services is given in tables l and 2 below.
The miners' dispute over pit closures which began in March 1984 and ended in March 1985 is counted as one stoppage in the total for the United Kingdom and as one in each of the regions in which it occurred.
The distribution of working days lost through the dispute by region is given in table 3.
In 1984 the dispute accounted for 82 per cent. of the total 27.1 million days lost and in 1985 for 63 per cent. of the total of 6.3 million days lost.
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Stoppages in progress in year 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 Wales 191 116 127 107 108 89 86 Scotland 266 197 160 201 164 168 112 Northern Ireland 62 44 32 33 42 41 42 United Kingdom1 2,125 1,348 1,344 1,538 1,364 1,221 903 1 The number of stoppages by region may not sum to the total for the United Kingdom as some disputes which affect more than one region have been counted once only in the United Kingdom total.
Table 3 Working days lost through miners' dispute1 Working days lost thousand March 1984 to March 1985 South East 494 East Anglia — South West — West Midlands 856 East Midlands 3,109 Yorkshire and Humberside 10,461 North West 591 North 4,592 Wales 4,112 Scotland 2,174 Northern Ireland — United Kingdom 26,391 1 Includes days lost through supporting action by workers in industries other than coal extraction.