asked the Secretary of State for Employment how many persons were employed in the machine tool industry in 1979, 1980 and to the nearest available date in 1981.

At December 1981 the number of employees in employment in Great Britain in the manufacture of metal-working machine tools—minimum list heading 332 of the Standard Industrial Classification—was 48,400. The corresponding numbers at December 1979 and December 1980 were 63,500 and 56,400 respectively. The figures are provisional.