HC Deb 23 May 1980 vol 985 cc437-8W
Mr. Nicholas Winterton

asked the Secretary of State for Employment how many people working in the United Kingdom paper and board industry were made redundant in 1979; and how many have been made redundant so far in the current year.

Mr. Jim Lester

I am informed by the Manpower Services Commission that its records of redundancies notified to it as likely to occur in the paper and board industry indicate that 2,644 people in Great Britain were affected in 1979 and 1,032 between 1 January and 30 April 1980. There is no statutory obligation on employers to notify actual redundancies to the MSC, however, and its records are not, therefore, comprehensive.

The only figures available for Northern Ireland are those which show the number of people for whom redundancy rebate has been claimed. For the two periods in question these figures are nine and nil respectively.