asked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he has received the communication from the hon. Member for Newham, North-West sent under date of 2nd May calling for him to take some action to deal with the subject matter of the letter enclosed regarding improvements in the industrial relations in the dock industry; and whether he will make a statement on his policy on this matter.

Yes. My hon. Friend referred to a statement made by the right hon. Member for Lowestoft (Mr. Prior) during a recent debate on the Governmen'ts proposals for the docks that the productivity of dockers in Antwerp are markedly higher than in London and drew my attention to a complete refutation provided by the Port of London Authority. My right hon. Friend would welcome retraction of ill-founded criticism of this kind made by opponents of the Government's proposals to extend the Dock Labour Scheme.