§ Mr. Cyril Smithasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement on the inability of John Bright and Brothers, Rochdale, to pay out redundancy payments to employees and of his Department's agreement to lend the money to the company concerned; how much money is involved: when employees will be paid; and if he will ensure that the owners of the company pay the debt out of assets acquired from the company and others.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonThe auditors of John Bright and Brothers Ltd. have provided evidence of the company's inability to make statutory redundancy payments to its employees, and I am therefore satisfied that these should be paid direct from the redundancy fund in accordance with section 106 of the Employment Protection (Consolidation) Act 1978. Payments totalling approximately £217,000 will be made to about 350 employees, probably within the next two or three weeks. The company is being asked to repay its share of the payments and I expect that the debt will be fully recovered in due course.