To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will provide details of the sample survey of delays in adjudication officers making decisions on availability for work, by regions, for each quarter from 31 December 1986.
Information is not available in the precise form requested. However, the speed with which adjudication officers make decisions (that is, the time between their receiving a referral and reaching a decision after making all necessary inquiries), is monitored in a 5 per cent. sample of cases. This sampling was instigated only from 1 April 1987 (from 1 July in Scotland), and therefore I am only able to provide details for three-month periods ending 30 June 1987 and 30 September 1987. For information on the three-month perod ending 31 December 1987, I refer the hon. Member to my reply in the Official Report on Friday 25 March at column 259. The samples show that, for the three-month periods ending 30 June 1987 and 30 September 1987, the percentage of all availability questions (on both new and existing claims and including decisions on availability during holidays) decided within four weeks of referral to an adjudication officer, for each employment service region, was as follows :-(2) if he will publish the best available estimate by his Department of
(a) the total number of establishments covered by wages councils, (b) the number of establishments covered by the Clothing Manufacturing wages council, (c) the number of establishments covered by the Hat, Cap and Millinery wages council, (d) the number of establishments covered by the Linen and Cotton Handkerchief and Household goods and Linen Piece Goods wages council, (e) the number of establishments covered by the Made-up Textiles wages council, and (f) the number of establishments covered by the Retail Bespoke Tailoring wages council.
At December 1987, the figures requested were:
| Number | |
| All wages councils | 379,253 |
| Clothing Manufacture | 6,964 |
| Hat, Cap and Millinery | 123 |
| Linen and Cotton Handkerchief etc. | 114 |
| Made-up Textiles | 292 |
| Retail Bespoke Tailoring | 509 |
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is the number of occasions on which section 23 of the Wages Act 1986 has been used to bring civil or criminal prosecutions against individuals for offences by bodies corporate.
None.
To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish the instructions issued to wages inspectors on the use of section 23 of the Wages Act 1986.
No specific instructions on the use of section 23 of the Act have been issued to inspectors.