§ Mr. David Youngasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many textile workers are now on the temporary short-time working compensation scheme; and what this is as a proportion of the total work force.
§ Mr. Peter MorrisonThe number of textile workers sharing short-time working under the temporary short time working compensation scheme in April 1981 was 43,338. Not all of these are at risk of redundancy and the total number of jobs covered by applications current in April 1981 was 25,477. This represents 7.2 per cent. of these actually employed—based on provisional estimates—in the textile industry at March 1981, the latest date for which we have figures.