asked the Paymaster General how many men and women are currently being trained in the wool textile industry; and how many have been in training in each of the last 20 years.

I shall reply to the hon. Member as soon as possible.

asked the Paymaster General if he will give figures for the percentage improvement in productivity in the wool textile industry for those years for which information is available.

The information necessary to make reliable estimates is not available.

asked the Paymaster General (1) if he will give the number of (a) full-time and (b) part-time workers in the wool textile industry for each of the last 20 years;

Estimates of the number of full-time and part-time male employees are available only from the censuses of employment which were held in June each year from 1971 to 1978, September 1981 and September 1984. Estimates of the number of full-time and part-time female employees are available only from censuses of employment up to June 1978, but are available quarterly for periods after that date.The table gives, for the dates specified, the available information on employees in employment in the woollen and worsted textile industry in Great Britain. The Department's employment statistics are analysed according to the Standard Industrial Classification and the series is broken by the introduction of the 1980 SIC, which reclassified certain activities. The figures for June 1966 to June 1981 are for Minimum List Heading (MLH) 414 of the 1968 SIC, while those for June 1982 to June 1986 are for Activity Heading (AH) 4310 of the 1980 SIC.The census of employment figures for September 1981 are given on both bases.The estimates given in the table are subject to considerable potential estimation error due to the relatively small number of employees in the industry.