§ Mr. DunnTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment if she will publish the number of days lost due to official and unofficial industrial action for each year since 1978; and if she will make a statement.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythBecause of the practical difficulties in distinguishing between official and unofficial disputes such an analysis was discontinued in 1981. However, a special exercise for the Government's Green Paper "Unofficial Action and the Law", showed that approximately 1.3 million working days were lost in unofficial stoppages in 1988, more than one third of the 3.7 million days lost in the year. Data for 1978 to 1980 are as follows:
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Table 6.1 Defendants1 proceeded against at magistrates' courts by type of offence Extract from Criminal Statistics England and Wales 1991 Number of defendants (thousands) Percentage Indictable offences Summary offences Indictable offences Summary offences Year Total number proceeded against (thousands) Offences (excluding motoring offences) Motoring offences Offences (excluding motoring offences) Motoring offences Persons aged 10 and under 17 1981 130 95 22 13 73 17 10 1982 121 90 20 12 74 16 9 1983 112 82 20 11 73 17 10 1984 105 78 17 9 75 16 9 1985 94 71 15 8 76 16 8 1986 75 57 11 6 76 15 8 1987 68 53 10 5 78 15 7 1988 62 48 10 4 77 16 7 1989 55 37 14 4 66 26 8 1990 54 36 13 4 67 25 8 1991 50 35 12 4 69 24 7 Persons aged 17 and under 21 1981 390 144 85 161 37 22 41 1982 394 152 82 160 38 21 41 1983 394 149 86 159 38 22 40 1984 372 148 79 145 40 21 39 1985 364 149 75 140 41 21 38
Year Working days lost Known official (Thousands) Unofficial and not known 1978 4,052 5,353 1979 23,512 5,962 1980 10,081 1,883