§ Mr. John Grantasked the Secretary of State for Employment what was the cost to public funds of redundancy payments for the years 1978–79 and 1979–80; and what are the estimated costs for 1980–81 and 1981–82, respectively.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonThe total cost to the redundancy fund of statutory redundancy payments in 1978–79 was £88.6 million and in 1979–80 was £112.8 million. The estimated cost for 1980–81 is about £300 million. No precise estimate of the cost form 1981–82 is possible, but the latest working assumption is that it will be in the range £250 million to £400 million.