§ Mr. Onslowasked the Secretary of State for Defence when he expects to be able to predict a firm figure for the total of Ministry of Defence civilians who will be declared redundant as a result of the defence cuts made since he took office; and if he will, in the meantime, give an estimate of his total, with a margin of 5,000 either way.
§ Mr. William RodgersAs I have indicated previously it will be a considerable time before the number of civilian redundancies arising from the defence review and the public expenditure survey will be known. Nor can I give an estimate within 5,000, either way, even if it were meaningful to do so.