§ Mr. Strangasked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many workers have been made redundant in the Scotch whisky industry in 1980 and 1981, respectively; and how many are currently working short-time.
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§ Mr. Alexander FletcherThere are no comprehensive statistics of redundancies. I am informed by the Manpower Services Commission that the number of redundancies involving 10 or more employees notified to it as due to occur in the whisky industry in Scotland was 623 in 1980 and 194 in the period 1 January to 10 April 1981. Information on the number of workers presently affected by short-time working within the industry is not available.
Note: Figures for February 1981 or later are not fully comparable with those for January 1981 and earlier because of improvements in data collection designed to secure a better coverage of reported redundancies which are actually expected to take place.
§ Mr. Strangasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what was the total number of full-time employees in the Scotch whisky industry on 1 January for each of the last five years; and if he will give a breakdown according to the numbers employed in each stage of production and distribution, namely, distilling, blending, bottling, transportation and storage.
§ Mr. Alexander FletcherInformation in the form and detail requested is not available. The average number employed—full-time and part-time—in the spirit distilling and compounding industry in Scotland is as follows:
Employment (thousands) 1975 22.3 1976 21.7 1977 22.1 1978 23.4 1979 23.4 Source: Censuses of Production.