§ Mr. Marlowasked the Secretary of State for Employment whether firms of under 10 employees can benefit from the temporary short-time working compensation scheme or any similar scheme.
§ Mr. Jim LesterI shall reply to my hon. Friend as soon as possible.
§ Mr. Cryerasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he intends to extend the temporary short-time working scheme to the original period of 12 months; and if he will state the estimated number of jobs such action would save.
§ Mr. Jim Lester[pursuant to his reply, 1 December 1980]: On 21 November my right hon. Friend announced that the maximum period of support under the TSTWC scheme has been extended, from six months to nine months, with effect from the date of the announcement. There are no plans to extend the maximum period of support any further.
There are too many uncertainties to allow any accurate estimate of the number of jobs that might be saved by extending the scheme for 12 months. Quite apart from the difficulty in forecasting the number of applications for support—which have shown a very sharp increase over the past few months — the extent to which successful applicants make use of the scheme is also subject to considerable fluctuation.