HC Deb 07 November 2002 vol 392 cc757-8W
Ms Walley

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make provision to enable employment tribunal cases to be heard in North Staffordshire; and if she will make a statement. [79007]

Alan Johnson

Unfortunately I have not been able to glean the information necessary to answer before Parliament is prorogued, but I will write to my hon. Friend and place a copy in the Library of the House.

Ms Walley

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many cases were referred to the employment tribunals in Shrewsbury for dispute resolution from Stoke-on-Trent in each of the last five years. [79009]

Alan Johnson

It is not possible to interrogate the Employment Tribunals Service database at the Shrewsbury tribunal office to ascertain this information and a manual search of the public register of applications could only be done at disproportionate cost.

However, a recent manual exercise which recorded the originating postcode of tribunal applications between 1 February and 28 June 2002 indicated that 275 cases came from postcode areas prefixed ST1–13 (covering Stoke-on-Trent and those surrounding ST postcode areas which fall within the jurisdiction of the Shrewsbury office). During the same period, the tribunals in England and Wales registered 31,609 applications.

Ms Walley

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, if she will revise the map advising those travelling to the employment tribunal in Shrewsbury to include details of how to arrive by car and by public transport from Stoke-on-Trent. [79008]

Alan Johnson

Unfortunately I have not been able to glean the information necessary to answer before Parliament is prorogued, but I will write to my hon. Friend and place a copy in the Library of the House.