§ Mr. David Watkinsasked the Secretary of State for Employment what was the number of redundancies notified to his Department for the Consett travel-to-work area in the 12 months following May 1979.
§ Mr. Jim Lester[pursuant to his reply, 17 June 1980, c. 452–53]: From June 1979 to May 1980 the number of proposed re dundancies notified to my Department under the redundancy handling provisions of the Employment Protection Act 1975, for the Consett travel-to-work area involved 1,719 employees at 22 establishments.
During the same period 277 redundancies at five establishments were formally withdrawn. There is no statutory requirement to notify my Department when proposed redundancies do not take place.
I am informed by the Manpower Services Commission that the number of redundancies notified to it as due to occur in the Consett travel-to-work area in the same period involved 770 employees. This figure is provisional since some notifications are received late.
Both Department of Employment and Manpower Services Commission figures are for redundancies involving 10 or more employees.