§ 47. Miss Boothroydasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he has had representations from employers' federations regarding the proposed employer's statutory sick pay scheme; and whether he will make a statement.
§ Mr. RossiThe great majority of the 1,000 or so representations that we received on our statutory sick-pay proposals came from employers or their representative organisations. Legislation will shortly be brought before the House and meanwhile I have nothing to add to what my right hon. Friend said during the debate on the Address on 21 November about the changes that we have decided to make to our original proposals in light of these representations.
§ Miss Boothroydasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what would be the number of persons made redundant in his Department if employers were made responsible for paying the first eight weeks of sickness benefit; and what would be the resulting redundancies if the period were four and six weeks respectively.
§ Mr. RossiOn the assumption that the proposals for making employers responsible for income during initial sickness would save about 5,000 staff, I would not expect that they would cause any redundancies in the Department.