§ Mr. Kilroy-Silkasked the Secretary of State for Employment what steps he is taking to prevent redundancies at BICC Ltd., Connolly, Kirkby.
§ Mr. GoldingThe only direct assistance which my Department could offer to the firm to help avert redundancies was through the temporary employment subsidy scheme, which closed for applications on 31 March. It has now been replaced by a scheme to support short-time working in industry as an alternative to redundancies.
Both schemes were brought to the attention of BICC, but unfortunately the company did not consider that help under either of them would enable it to keep the Kirkby factory open.