§ Mr. Burdenasked the Secretary of State for Defence if the reduction in civilian staff employed in support of the services announced in the Expenditure White Paper on 20th February 1976 are in addition to the 30,000 announced in the 1975 statement on defence estimates; and how many Chatham Dockyard workers are now involved.
§ Mr. JuddThe reductions in civilian staff employed in support of the Services which were announced on 20th February 1976 are in addition to the reductions indicated in the 1975 Statement on Defence Estimates. As far as Chatham is concerned, the dockyard, in common with the other three yards, will have a continuing heavy load of naval refitting and repair work, for which manpower will need to be retained at about the present level. In the interests of economy, however, certain stores support work at present undertaken at Chatham, but not associated with the naval refitting and repair task, will be absorbed by facilities elsewhere. As a result, there will be a reduction of 145 in the strength of the non-industrial staff and of 265 in the strength of the industrial staff at Chatham by 1978–79. There will also be a small reduction of about 40 in the strength of the Captain of the Port's Department. The staff associations and trade unions256W are being fully consulted about these reductions and every effort will be made to ease the impact of these changes so as to avoid unnecessary hardship.