§ 48. Mr. Russell Johnstonasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how many jobs have now been shed by local government in the past two years; and whether he has any figures to illustrate how many of these were clerical and how many were manual.
§ Mr. Tom KingInformation is not available on the numbers of jobs shed. Joint Manpower Watch figures for the net change in total numbers of staff in post—as distinct from full-time equivalents—show that in England and Wales:
- (a) over the latest two-year period for which figures are available—December 1978–December 1980—there was a reduction of 56,948 (-5.1 per cent.) in manual staff and an increase of 834 (+0.1 per cent.)—in non-manual staff;
- (b) in the period since the Government took office—June 1979—December 1980—the figures, not adjusted for seasonal factors, were for reductions of 62,966 (-5.6 per cent.) and 2,585 (-0.2 per cent.) respectively.
I understand that in Scotland the figures were (a) +599 (+0.4 per cent.) and +7,275 (+4.6 per cent.) and (b) —2,667 (-1.8 per cent.) and +4,932 (+3.2 per cent.) respectively.
§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Secretary of State for the Environment why information is not collected centrally regarding the number of people made redundant by the local authorities and the total cost of redundancy payments.
§ Mr. KingSince my right hon. Friend is responsible for setting the level of redundancy payments, and since statistics on local government manpower are published quarterly, it is not felt necessary to maintain separate statistics on the numbers of people made redundant or the amount of redundancy payments made by individual authorities.