HC Deb 11 January 1999 vol 323 cc106-7W
Liz Blackman

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what was the average time taken by each Redundancy Pay Services Department office to process claims for redundancy payment in the last year for which figures are available. [64515]

Mr. Ian McCartney

In the Financial Year 1998–99, to date, the average time taken by each Redundancy Payments Office to process claims for redundancy payments was nine weeks for the Birmingham Office and six weeks for both the Edinburgh and Watford Offices.

Judy Mallaber

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will change the rules for compensatory payments in lieu of notice in cases where a firm becomes insolvent so that the ex-employee is paid the full amount to which they would have been entitled if they had been made redundant by a firm which was not insolvent. [64564]

Mr. Ian McCartney

Payments in lieu of notice constitute damages for breach of an employee's contract, and the courts have established(Westwood -v- Secretary of State for Employment 1984) that they are subject to the common law principle of mitigation. This means that they may be reduced by income which the employee received, or could have received, during what should have been the notice period. Compensatory notice payments made on behalf of insolvent employers by my Department, under the Employment Rights Act 1996, are therefore calculated on the same basis. They are also subject to a statutory limit (currently £220 per week) which is reviewed annually. There are no plans to abolish the limit as the statutory scheme is intended to provide only a basic level of protection for former employees of insolvent companies. Amounts owed above the statutory limit stand as a debt in the insolvency proceedings.

Judy Mallaber

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what is the average time taken by the Edgbaston Redundancy Pay Services Department office to process claims for redundancy payment; and what is the equivalent time for each other office. [64568]

Mr. Ian McCartney

In the Financial Year 1998/99, to date, the average time taken by the Redundancy Payments Office in Edgbaston, Birmingham, to process claims for redundancy payments was nine weeks. The equivalent time for both the Edinburgh and Watford Offices was six weeks.