§ Mr. Eldon Griffithsasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he is aware that in response to applications for temporary employment subsidy by firms facing an immediate need to make workers redundant, his Department is sending out duplicated replies stating that there will be a delay of approximately 10 weeks before one of the visiting officers will be able to discuss the application with the firm, and the Department would be glad if the firm would refrain from telephoning; and since, in many cases delays of this order can mean that numerous workers lose their jobs before their firm's 520W case is considered, if he will take steps to eliminate such delays which make it impossible for the temporary employment subsidy to operate effectively.
§ Mr. GoldingSteps have already been taken to deal with the serious 10 week's delay in processing TES applications which arose recently at one of my regional offices. Substantial numbers of additional staff have been allocated for TES work, the position is rapidly improving and the duplicated notice complained of is no longer being used.