§ Mr. Juddasked the Secretary of State for Employment whether he will make a statement on recent and planned closures and redundancies in the Portsmouth area with special reference to the existing unemployment level in comparison with that of the South-East Region as a whole.
§ Mr. Dudley SmithAs all redundancies are not notified to my Department the relevant information is not comprehensive. However, our records show that redundancies involving some 850 employees were notified in the Portsmouth area as due to occur in October, November and December, 1970, and a further 550 in the first half of 1971. Most of the workers who have so far become redundant have been able to find other jobs without much difficulty.
Provisional figures indicate that the January, 1971 unemployment rate for the Portsmouth travel-to-work areas was 3.8 per cent. compared with 1.9 per cent. for the South East Planning Region. We shall continue to keep a close watch on the employment situation in Portsmouth.