asked the Secretary of State for Employment on how 147 many occasions he or his Department has intervened in any way to advise or to prevent wage and salary settlements because such settlements would contravene 272 the 10 per cent. guideline; and whether, 10 in view of the Government's imposition of a 10 per cent. maximum wage increase, he will change the guideline designation to an imposed wage settlement of 10 per cent.

The rôle of my Department of Employment is to give advice to negotiators so that settlements are reached within the guidelines set out in Cmnd. 6882. This is a continuous process and there are no figures available on the number of times advice has been given. As I have told my hon. Friend in previous replies, the great majority of employees who have settled since 1st August 1977 have observed the policy and there are no plans to make changes to it.