To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the change in manufacturing output in Scotland for each of the last six years for which figures are available.

The latest available full-year figures relate to 1989. In the six-year period from 1983 to 1989, manufacturing output rose by over 21 per cent.

Between 1983 and 1984, output rose by 4·6 per cent.; between 1984 and 1985, it rose by 2·2 per cent.; over the next year, there was a fall of 2·1 per cent.; between 1986 and 1987 there was a rise of 3·0 per cent.; a large rise of 7·7 per cent. was experienced between 1987 and 1988; and between 1988 and 1989, output rose by 4·5 per cent.

Does my hon. Friend agree that the excellent increase in manufacturing productivity has fed through directly to increase the prosperity of the people of Scotland and that it has come about as a result of the Government's economic policies there? Does not that represent another reason why the Conservative party's opinion poll showing in Scotland has improved so dramatically? Do not the figures compare strikingly with the period under the last Labour Government when manufacturing output actually fell?

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. In the first quarter of 1990, output was some 11 per cent. higher than in 1979, and some 6 per cent. higher than the previous peak. My hon. Friend is right to point to the record of the last Labour Government—[Interruption.] Hon. Members should listen to this. Under the last Labour Government, manufacturing output in Scotland fell by 1·5 per cent.