§ Mr. Christopher Priceasked the Secretary of State for Employment and Productivity what is now the average time spent waiting for appeals to be heard to decide eligibility for redundancy payments in the city of Birmingham; and what steps she is taking to reduce this period.
§ Mr. HattersleyThe Industrial Tribunals are independent judicial bodies, and the President of the Tribunals is responsible for determining where and when they shall hear applications. I am, however, informed by him that in most cases heard in Birmingham in September, 1968, the time between application and final hearing was 10 to 12 weeks. Some of the cases were put down for hearing earlier in the summer but adjourned to September because of holidays of parties or witnesses; in four cases the period had been extended, mainly through repeated requests by parties for adjournment, to over 30 weeks. I also understand from the President that if the hon. Member cares to write to him on any specific case he has in mind the President will be pleased to investigate it.
Reasonably generous time limits for the necessary preparatory stages after the 203W application are laid down in the Redundancy Payments Regulations 1967. Tribunals have discretion to extend these limits and this is done in a substantial number of cases. We do not, therefore, consider it advisable to make any amendment reducing the time limits or restricting the discretion of the tribunals.