§ 5. Mr. Redmondasked the Secretary of State for Employment what was the number of redundancies in all industries notified to the Department of Employment in June, 1972.
§ The Secretary of State for Employment (Mr. Maurice Macmillan)Redundancies notified to my Department in June, 1972, in all industries involved 15,150 work-people.
§ Mr. RedmondCan my right hon. Friend say how those figures compare with June, 1970, June, 1971, and January of this year? Would I be right in thinking that the redundancies notified in about January and February of this year have been included in the unemployment figures for June? Were they not exceptionally heavy in January, thereby causing that hiccup in the unemployment figure? May I take it that if there has been a reduction in redundancies notified, that is a much better indicator than the unemployment figures which are rather unsatisfactory?
§ Mr. MacmillanI am not quite certain whether my hon. Friend's reasoning is accurate, but I can answer him on a matter of fact. Redundancies now are about 90 per cent. of what they were in June, 1970, and about 36 per cent. of what they were in June, 1971. There have been considerable reductions in the number of redundancies, and naturally my Department is doing all that it can to resettle these people.
§ Mr. KaufmanIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that in the Manchester area the doom-laden laying-off of 1,000 workers at the Churchill machine tool industry establishment has now begun? As at present in Manchester 500 machine tool fitters are chasing 10 vacancies in that trade, what will the right hon. 332 Gentleman do about this situation? The Government have done none of the things they could have done to save Churchill's from closing and to prevent the loss of 1,000 jobs.
§ Mr. MacmillanThe Government have done a very great deal to expand the economy and to give special help to the development areas, special development areas and intermediate areas. Certainly the present Government have done more in their reflationary tendencies to get the economy going than any other Administration.