§ Mr. MilburnTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the number of redundancies among national health service hospital staff(a) by grade and (b) by reason for each year since 1988–89.
§ Mr. StewartStatistics on the redundancies in the NHS in Scotland are not collected centrally other than in respect of staff who are both over 50 years of age and have at least five years' reckonable service for superannuation purposes where a benefit is immediately payable under the National Health Service (Compensation for Premature Retirement) (Scotland) Regulations 1981. The total number of such premature retirement awards for the years since 1988–89 is as follows:
Year Number of cases 1988–89 354 1989–90 1,040 1990–91 480 1991–92 625 1992–93 759 A breakdown by hospital staff only and by grade and by reason of redundancy is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.