§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what research he has commissioned or undertaken into(a) employment prospects on the clocks and (b) company liquidations before arriving at his estimate that the Dock Work Act 1989 will lead to 1,500 to 2,000 redundancies and cost £25 million over the full period, Official Report, Standing Committee A, 16 May 1989, column 537.
§ Mr. McLoughlinThe estimate of redundancies among registered dock workers was the best that could be made in all the circumstances. As my hon. Friend the Minister of State emphasised to the Standing Committee, no one could tell with any precision what would happen when the dock labour scheme ended; the figures were between an estimate and a guess.