§ Mr. McNamaraasked the Secretary of State for Employment what are the mean and median incomes of Hull, Stoke and their standard deviations and of the United Kingdom as a whole for the past five years.
§ Mr. Jim Lester[pursuant to his reply, 11 February 1980]: Information on incomes for the cities mentioned is not readily available. Details on gross weekly earnings available from the new earnings survey for the county areas in which Hull and Stoke are situated, and for Great Britain, are as follows:
§ Mr. Wallerasked the Secretary of State for Employment what would be the estimated cost of operating the short-time working compensation scheme for a further year.
§ Mr. Jim LesterIf the temporary short-term working scheme were open for applications for a further year after 31 March 1980, the gross cost, which depends on employers' use of the scheme in 561W the light of developments in the economy, might be about £30 million in 1980–81 and a little over half this amount in 1981–82. The net cost would be lower because of savings in social security benefits.