§ Mr. John MarshallTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the current level of employment in(a) the coal industry in Scotland and (b) the electricity using industries in Scotland.
§ Mr. LangBritish Coal has about 5,000 employees in Scotland at present. In addition, roughly 1,000 people are employed on opencast and deep mining by subcontractors. There are also a small number working in licensed private mining.
There is no generally accepted definition of "the electricity using industries". Estimates of the numbers of employees in employment in Scotland in September 1987 by broad industry categories are given in table 1.5 of the March Employment Gazette, available in the Library of the House. A more detailed industry breakdown, from the 1984 census of employment, appears in an article in "Scottish Economic Bulletin" number 36, also available in the Library of the House.