§ Mrs. Renée Shortasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many ancillary staff employees in the National Health Service have been affected by redundancies since the implementation of privatisation programmes for hospital cleaning, catering and laundry services.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeInformation about the numbers of redundancies in the National Health Service has not been collected centrally since 31 March 1981. Since 1 April 1984 our Department has recorded centrally those who, because they are aged over 50 with at least five years service, qualify for premature payment of superannuation benefits. Returns for the first six months of 1984–85 show that the number of ancillary staff so qualifying as a result of competitive tendering in domestic, laundry and catering services was 99.