§ Mr. Sillarsasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many persons are now employed in the steel industry in the Lanarkshire and Ayrshire areas, respectively; and how this compares with 1970 and 1964.
§ Mr. GoldingBecause of the risk of disclosure of information about individual undertakings figures can be given only for the old county areas of Ayrshire and Lanarkshire combined. They show that there were 18,600 employees in employment in the steel industry—Minimum List
£ million Year ended 31st March Amount of Unemployment Benefit paid Cost of Administration of Unemployment Benefit Work (recovered from the National Insurance Find) Estimated cost of Administration of Employment offices and Job Centres Cost of Administration of Job Creation Programme 1967 … … 78.0 6.0 — — 1968 … … 122.0 10.2 — — 1969 … … 123.0 8.8 — — 1970 … … 127.0 9.7 — — 1971 … … 150.0 11.8 — — 1972 … … 239.0 16.5 — — 1973 … … 209.0 15.3 — — 1974 … … 174.0 10.4 — — 1975 … … 214.0 21.0 31.1* — 1976 … … 454.0 35.9 61.3† 0.3‡ * Until 1974–75 employment and unemployment benefit services were both provided by Department of Employment employment exchanges and the cost of the employment services was not separately identified in departmental accounts. The estimated costs for 1974–75 and 1975–76 have provided by the Employment Service Agency (ESA) of the Manpower Services Commission, which took over responsibility 1974–75 for administering employment services through a network of employment offices and Job centres. † From 1st April 1975 ESA was required to pay for services previouosly provided without charge by allied service departments. ‡ The Job Creation Programme was introduced in October 1975.