asked the Secretary of State for Employment, from January 1977 to May 1978, or the latest month for which figures are available, how many textile mills in Great Britain and in the Macclesfield constituency have been closed down per month; how many workers have been laid off for more than two weeks; and what has been the total cost per month, to the latest date for which figures are available, of temporary employment subsidies to the textile industry in Great Britain.
Comprehensive information of the kind requested is not available. However, I am informed by the Manpower Services Commission that details are available of the number of workers involved in redundancies per month since January 1977, in the textile industry in Great Britain and in the Macclesfield constituency and these are shown in table I; some of these redundancies may have resulted from the closure of textile mills. Information about the number of operatives on short-time working is collected for a selected week in each month. It distinguishes those stood off for the
| TABLE 1 | |||||||||
| REDUNDANCIES NOTIFIED AS DUE TO OCCUR FROM JANUARY 1977 TO MAY 1978 IN THE TEXTILE INDUSTRY | |||||||||
| 1977 | |||||||||
| January | February | March | April | May | June | ||||
| Great Britain | … | … | … | 1,167 | 696 | 932 | 1,476 | 1,260 | 612 |
| 1977 | |||||||||
| July | August | September | October | November | December | ||||
| Great Britain | … | … | … | 736 | 455 | 1,167 | 1,112 | 1,275 | 1,402 |
| 1978 | |||||||||
| January | February | March | April | May | Total | ||||
| Great Britain | … | … | … | 841 | 1,503 | 1,214 | 1,085* | 696* | 17,629 |
| September 1977 | February 1978 | Total | |||||||
| Macclesfield Constituency | … | 28 | 80 | 108 | |||||
| * Provisional. | |||||||||
| TABLE II | ||||||
| The following table gives the number of operatives on short·time working in the textile industry in Great Britain from January 1977 to March 1978, the latest date for which information is available | ||||||
| Thousands | ||||||
| Week ending | Stood off for whole week | Working part of the week | ||||
| 15th January 1977 | … | … | … | … | 0·6 | 3·6 |
| 12th February 1977 | … | … | … | … | 0·3 | 3·0 |
| 12th March 1977 | … | … | … | … | 0·2 | 4·7 |
| 23rd April 1977 | … | … | … | … | 0·2 | 4·0 |
| 14th May 1977 | … | … | … | … | 0·2 | 51 |
| 18th June 1977 | … | … | … | … | 1·1 | 4·5 |
| 16th July 1977 | … | … | … | … | 0·2 | 5·1 |
| 13th August 1977 | … | … | … | … | 2·7 | 5·9 |
| 10th September 1977 | … | … | … | … | 1·8 | 8·8 |
| 15th October 1977 | … | … | … | … | 3·0 | 8·3 |
| 12th November 1977 | … | … | … | … | 1·2 | 7·2 |
| 10th December 1977 | … | … | … | … | 0·9 | 6·0 |
| 14th January 1978 | … | … | … | … | 2·0 | 5·5 |
| 11th February 1978 | … | … | … | … | 0·6 | 5·3 |
| 11th March 1978 | … | … | … | … | 0·4 | 6·0 |
| TABLE III | ||||
| TEMPORARY EMPLOYMENT SUBSIDY—TOTAL ESTIMATED EXPENDITURE PER QUARTER | ||||
| Quarter ended 31st March 1977 | … | … | — | Figures not available. |
| Quarter ended 30th June 1977 | … | … | £10,748,400 | Main scheme only Supplement figures not available. |
| Quarter ended 30th September 1977 | … | £11,522,940 | Main scheme and Supplement | |
| Quarter ended 31st December 1977 | … | £12,653,940 | ||
| Quarter ended 31st March 1978 | … | … | £11,772,930 | |