asked the Prime Minister what action Her Majesty's Government proposes to take arising out of the report of the Lord President of the Council on unemployment on the North-East Coast.

I would refer the right hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Tynemouth (Dame Irene Ward) on 2nd July.

As it is over six months since the noble Lord was appointed to this job, cannot the Prime Minister say whether we are going to have at least some concrete proposals arising out of the report? Is it to be published?

In the first place, many of the concrete short-term proposals have already been implemented on a very large scale, both by separate administrative acts and by the Budget. We are now dealing with the longer-term view of the future of this area. I hope that this statement will be made before the Recess. There has been no delay.

I appreciate my right hon. Friend's long-standing and intimate knowledge of the affairs of the North-East. Is he aware that there is some danger of events overtaking us unless there is the utmost urgency in proceeding in this matter? Has it been reported to him that only last week the English Electric Company announced that it was closing a locomotive factory in Darlington and thus throwing a further 900 men out of work?

Yes, I appreciate that. But short-term measures are operating and I hope will be successful and a great advance made. This is a longer-term review and I hope that we shall be able to announce proposals about it before the House rises.

In view of his statement that an announcement will be made before the House rises, may I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether he will give the House an assurance that his Government will act and will do something for the North-East? Is he aware that at present only 18 new firms have come to the North-East in recent years and 33 firms have closed down, with a loss of employment to over 2,000, and that the emigrant figures from the North-East are still running at around 12,500 a year averaging over recent years?

There is a considerable improvement already—

No.

—by the short-term measures taken on a wide scale. The point we are discussing is something quite different, the longer-term review of the future of this area over a longer period. That is a separate and quite different problem.