§ Mr. McBrideasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will state the total number of redundancies intimated to him in Wales since 27th October, 1970; what percentage this figure represents of the total employable population; how the latest unemployment figures in Wales compare with each of the previous five years; and what steps are being taken to counter the growing unemployment in Wales.
§ Mr. Dudley SmithSince 1st November, 1970, the nearest convenient date, 11,055 redundancies in Wales have been notified to my Department. This figure is equivalent to 1.1 per cent. of the latest estimate of the number of employees (employed and unemployed) in Wales.
The number of persons registered as unemployed in Wales in April this year and in each of the last five years were as follows:—
35W
April 1971 … … … 44,785 April 1970 … … … 39,861 April 1969 … … … 39,545 April 1968 … … … 39,838 April 1967 … … … 41,204 April 1966 … … … 27,563 The Government's national and regional policies are designed to secure conditions in which industry can expand.