§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many people were made redundant in 1979 and during the first six months of the current year; and what is his latest estimate of the minimum, maximum and average amounts of redundancy pay.
§ Mr. Jim LesterInformation on the number of redundancies which have actually taken place is not available. However, I am informed by the Manpower Services Commission that the number of redundancies affecting 10 or more employees and reported by them as due to occur in 1979 was 186,784 employees. For the first six months of this year the number was 174,207 employees. This figure is provisional since some redundancies are reported late.
Statutory redundancy payments are calculated according to the employee's age, length of service and weekly earnings, subject to certain limits. No minimum level of entitlement is laid down. The maximum payment is £3,600. The average redundancy payment for the first three months of this year was £900.