§ Mr. Needhamasked the Secretary of State for Employment what is the extent of employee share ownership; and what information is available on the impact of such committees on employee participation.
§ Mr. GummerThere are now over 530 employee share schemes approved for the purposes of tax relief, compared with under 30 when we took office in 1979. In each of the last two years, about a quarter of a million employees have been allocated shares under approved profit sharing schemes, and over 100,000 employees are now involved in the savings-related share option schemes for which tax relief was introduced in 1980.
271WBoth employers and employees clearly regard share ownership as a valuable means of employee involvement.