§ Mrs. Ann Wintertonasked the Paymaster General if he will estimate the employment implications for the small retail sector of the deregulation of Sunday trading.
§ Mr. TrippierThe Auld committee of inquiry asked the Institute of Fiscal Studies to examine the economic implications of deregulation for retailing as a whole. the report by IFS suggests that over a 15-year period up to 20,000 full-time equivalent jobs could be lost. There are, however, reasons to believe that this assessment may prove to be pessimistic. For example, it assumes no increase in sales. But many retailers expect an increase. If this happened, deregulation could lead to an increase in jobs; for example, the IFS also estimated that a 2 per cent. increase in sales would generate an additional 22,000 full-time equivalent jobs.