§ Mr. David Watkinsasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many redundancies have been notified to his Department for the Consett travel-to-work area in each month since and including June 1980.
§ Mr. Jim Lester[pursuant to his reply, 1 December 1980]: The number of proposed redundancies notified to my Department under the redundancy handling provisions of the Employment Protection Act 1975 for the Consett travel-to-work area since June 1980 is as follows:
Establishments Employees June 4 3,940 July 7 359 August 6 298 September 8 515 October 10 313 These figures are not a true measure of the number of actual redundancies since many notified redundancies do not in fact take place—for example because of a subsequent application under the temporary short-time working compensation scheme—and there is no statutory requirement to notify my Department when proposed redundancies do not take place.
A better measure of redundancies that are due to occur is provided by figures obtained by local offices of the Manpower Services Commission by consulting the firms concerned nearer the actual date of redundancy. I am informed by the Manpower Services Commission that the number of redundancies reported to it as due to occur in the Consett travel-to-work area is as follows: 90W
Employees June 53 July 207 August 121 September 3,244 October (provisional) 247 Both the Department of Employment and Manpower Services Commission figures are for redundancies involving 10 or more employees.