HC Deb 20 July 1981 vol 9 cc51-2W
Mr. Ernie Ross

asked the Secretary of State for Employment how many redundancies his Department has been notified of in Dundee under section 100 of the Employment Protection Act in each month since January 1981.

Mr. Waddington

The proposed number of redundancies in Dundee which has been notified to my Department under the redundancy handling provisions of the Employment Protection Act 1975 in each month since January 1981, is as follows:

1981 Employees
January 538
February 606
March 776
April 99
May 275
June 224

These figures are not a true measure of the number of actual redundancies since many redundancies do not in fact take place—for example, because of subsequent application under the temporary short-time working compensation scheme—and there is no statutory requirement to notify my Department when proposed redundancies do not take place.

A more accurate measure of how many of these reduncancies will actually occur is provided by figures obtained by local offices of the Manpower Services Commission who follow up the statutory notifications with the firms concerned nearer the actual date of the redundancy. The number of redundancies reported to the Manpower Services Commission as due to occur in Dundee during the same period is as follows:

1981 Employees
January 543
February 213
March 53
April 504
May *294
June *78

* provisional figures

NOTEFigures 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.

Both sets of figures are for redundancies involving 10 or more employees.