§ Mr. Armstrongasked the Secretary of State for Employment what notifications he has received of redundancies that have occurred in the Northern Region since 18th June, 1970; whether he will give separate figures for the county of Durham; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Dudley SmithAs all redundancies are not notified to my Department, the information is not comprehensive. However, records show that redundancies involving 7,600 workpeople were notified in the Northern Region during the period 18th June, 1970, to 21st January, 1971, and of this total, some 5,200 were in County Durham. The level of unemployment in the Region decreased slightly from 5.2 per cent. in January, 1970, to 5.1 per cent. in January, 1971. Whilst these figures give no cause for complacency, they do suggest that redundancies have not led to an increase in unemployment in the Region as a whole.
§ Mr. Simon Mahonasked the Secretary of State for Employment what steps he is taking to help those made redundant by the run-down at the Netherton factory of English Electric/General Electric to find alternative employment.
§ Mr. Dudley SmithAs soon as my Department was given details of the proposed rundown of the Netherton factory immediate steps were taken to canvas for suitable vacancies. Arrangements were also made for opening a site office on the factory premises to give advice and information to those who needed our help46W in finding other jobs. These and other measures have worked well and of the 1,129 employees released by 22nd January, 1971, only 96 are still unemployed. We are continuing our efforts to assist them and will give similar help to the 100 or so employees who have yet to leave.