§ Mr. Campbell-Savoursasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many jobs in total are supported by the temporary short-time working compensation scheme for (a) each of the travel-to-work areas that comprise the county of Cumbria, (b) the Northern region and (c) the North-West region, for the last month for which statistics are available.
§ Mr. AlisonThe following table shows the figures requested:
December 1981 Area Number of potentially redundant jobs covered in applications that were current in December 1982 Furness travel-to-work area — Kendal travel-to-work area 23 Whitehaven travel-to-work area 96 Workington travel-to-work area 370 Carlisle employment office area 21 Keswick employment office area — Penrith employment office area — Northern region 1,544 North West region 30,720
Mr. Nicholas Wintersonasked the Secretary of State for Employment if, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Macclesfield of 2 February, Official Report, column 105, he will give details of the representations he has received concerning his decision to reduce the period of entitlement under the temporary short-time working compensation scheme.
§ Mr. AlisonWe have received no correspondence on the change from 9 to 6 months, since my right hon. Friend announced the decision on the 15 December 1981. Only one parliamentary question—from my hon. Friend the Member for Macclesfield (Mr. Winterton)—has concerned this matter.
Prior to my announcement, we did, of course, receive a number of representations concerning all aspects of the scheme, including the maximum period of support. These were taken into account during the annual review of the scheme.
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Mr. Nicholas Wintersonasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will give details of the costs of the temporary short-time working compensation scheme; and how these costs will be modified after the reduction in the period of entitlement comes into force in July of the current year.
§ Mr. AlisonExpenditure on the temporary short time working compensation scheme in the financial year 1979–80 was £24.4 million and in 1980–81 was £365 million. The Estimate provision for 1981–82 is £388.5 million, but it is expected that because of reduced demand for the scheme over the past few months, there will be a shortfall. The public expenditure White Paper, which will be published shortly, will provide a forecast of expenditure on the scheme in 1982–83, taking account of policy changes and updated estimates.
§ Mr. Nicholas Wintertonasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will estimate the effect on employment of the planned reduction in the period of entitlement under the temporary short-time working compensation scheme; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. AlisonThere are many uncertainties which prevent an accurate assessment of the employment effect of reducing the maximum period of entitlement under the TSTWCS. The two major factors are the numbers of firms which will apply successfully for support, and the extent to which they make use of the scheme once in it. It is an encouraging sign that far fewer firms are now applying to join TSTWCS, and that the amount of short-time worked under the scheme has been falling rapidly. It is expected that these trends will continue in the the financial year 1982–83 and beyond.
Any effect of the reduction in entitlement will not be felt for 6 months after the change, as it is only after this point that firms which would otherwise have remained eligible begin to exhaust entitlement. In the period up to March 1984, the maximum effect on employment of reducing the entitlement period is about 6,000 jobs, at any one time.