§ Mr. BlairTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish his Department's working papers in support of the figure claimed for the cost of the EC directive on working hours.
§ Mr. ForthA memorandum prepared by my Department on the costs of the social action programme to the United Kingdom and the methods used to derive these cost estimates has already been published in the report by the House of Lords Select Committee on European Communities on "Part time and temporary employment—Session 1990–91, 2nd report, pp 33–45.
The European Commission has meanwhile published a revised version of the draft working time directive taking account of amendments proposed by the European Parliament. Using the same method as in the original calculation, my Department estimates that the direct costs to employers of implementing the directive as amended would be increased by over £500 million to at least £2.5 billion.