§ Mr. Roy Hughesasked the Secretary of State for Employment what decision he has reached about bringing forward from April the implementation of the redundancy provisions in Part IV of the Employment Protection Act.
§ Mr. FootI have decided to bring forward the implementation date to 8th March. I have therefore made a Commencement Order under which redundancies declared on or after 8th March will be subject to all the requirements of Part IV of the Act. Redundancies declared before this date will not be subject to the minimum advance consultation and notification requirements, provided that the necessary consultation has begun by then. Cases where valid individual dismissal notices have been issued before 8th March, to take effect after that date, will not be affected. A leaflet explaining the transitional provisions will be available from local offices of my Department and of the Employment Service Agency within the next day or two. The Commencement Order also deals with the insolvency provisions in Sections 63–69 of the Act. These will come into force on 20th April.