§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many people have been made redundant in (a) Wolverhampton and (b) the West Midlands for the last five months for which figures are available; and what are the comparable figures for the same period in 1979 and 1980.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonThere are no comprehensive statistics of redundancies. Following is the available information relating to redundancies, involving 10 or more employees, reported to the Manpower Services Commission as due to occur in the areas requested.
Redundancies reported as due to occur January 1979 to May 1979 (inclusive) January 1980 to May 1980 (inclusive) January 1981 to May 1981 (inclusive)* Wolverhampton travel-to-work area 330 1,680 1,980 West Midlands 6,630 18,400 24,170 * Including provisional data for April and May 1981. Figures for February 1981 or later are not fully comparable with those for January 1981 and earlier, because of improvements in data collection designed to secure a better coverage of reported redundancies which are actually expected to take place.