§ Mr. Barry JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales what is his estimate of the number of manufacturing redundancies announced in 1998 to date; and if he will make a statement. [29432]
§ Mr. HainNo reliable estimates of manufacturing redundancies in Wales are available. Information on redundancies generally is available from the quarterly Labour Force Survey, which estimates the number of people who were made redundant in the three months prior to the survey. However, data for the first quarter of 1998 will not be available until late summer. The Spring 1997 survey estimated that 11,000 people in Wales were made redundant in the three months prior to interview. The Summer 1997 survey gave an estimate below 10,000 (the Labour Force Survey threshold for publication).