§ Mr. Channonasked the Secretary of State for Defence what redundancy payments are paid to Service men made redundant by recent defence cuts; for how long such Service men have to have served before qualifying for such payments; and how this compares with payments legally required to civilian employers.
§ Dr. GilbertI would refer the hon. Member to Annex H of the 1975 Defence White Paper, Cmnd. 5976, which describes the principles of the Armed Forces redundancy compensation scheme currently in operation. Entitlement to the special capital payments under the scheme begins after one year's qualifying service; in practice, those who leave on redundancy will have completed several years at least in the Armed Forces. Service redundancy compensation is more favourable than that prescribed for the private sector by the Redundancy Payments Act.