asked the Secretary of State for Employment what was the number of hours of overtime worked in (a) Dundee, (b) Scotland and (c) Great Britain on average per week last year; and what was the amount of overtime worked per overtime worker in each case.

Overtime statistics are collected for one week in each month and relate to operatives in manufacturing industries. Taking the figures obtained in the first 11 months of 1979, the average weekly numbers of hours of overtime worked in Scotland and Great Britain were 1,348,000 and 14,855,000 respectively. The weekly averages per operative working overtime were 9·0 hours in Scotland and 8·7 in Great Britain. Information for areas smaller than the standard regions of Great Britain is not available.The weeks for which overtime statistics are collected have been selected to avoid statutory holidays and it cannot be assumed that the averages are representative of all weeks in the year.