To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is his latest estimate of the total number of workers who have been (a) put on short-time working and (b) declared redundant as a result of Turkish yarn imports; and if he will name the companies involved.

I have been asked to reply.The information requested on short-time working and redundancies is not available from official sources, as there is no reliable way of relating redundancies to imports from a particular country—or indeed to imports in general. The acrylic yarn sector has also been affected by a fall in demand for knitwear.