HC Deb 28 October 1985 vol 84 c350W
Dr. Godman

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many redundancy notifications were given during the last month for which statistics are available in the Greenock travel-to-work area.

Mr. Allan Stewart

Statistics are compiled from notifications to the Department of Employment of impending redundancies involving 10 or more workers. During the month of September 1985, three such notifications affecting 777 workers were made by employers in the Greenock and Port Glasgow jobcentre areas. The figures are collected by jobcentre area, and precise figures for the Greenock travel-to-work area are not therefore available.

Dr. Godman

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the employment consequences of the stated intentions of Scott Lithgow Limited to make 900 members of the work force at Greenock and Port Glasgow redundant and of Clark Kincaid to make 80 members of the work force at Greencock redundant.

Mr. Allan Stewart

The numbers of those to be made redundant are still uncertain. Were 980 redundancies to take place and all those persons were to claim unemployment benefit in the Greenock travel-to-work area, it is estimated that the direct short-run effect would be to increase the unemployment rate in the Greenock TTWA by around two percentage points. The Government recognise the serious problems of the area, which has development area status, and give their full support to the Inverclyde initiative.

Dr. Godman

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many community programme places were being supported in the Greenock travel-to-work area and the Strathclyde region during the last month for which statistics are available; and how many of those places were part-time and full-time places, respectively.

Mr. Allan Stewart

At 30 September 1985 there were 556 filled places on the community programme in the Greenock travel-to-work area. Of these, 459 were part-time and 97 were full-time. At the same date there were 12,555 filled places in Stratchlyde region of which 9,583 were part-time and 2,972 were full-time.

Dr. Godman

asked the Secretary of State for Scotland how many jobs in the Greenock travel-to-work area were being supported by the temporary short-time working scheme during the last month for which statistics are available.

Mr. Allan Stewart

The temporary short-time working compensation scheme closed for applications on 31 March 1984. No potentially redundant jobs were being supported in the Greenock travel-to-work area in September 1984, the last month for which statistics are available.