8. Mr. Baker Whiteasked the Minister of National Insurance the figures of the number of persons receiving the sickness and other insurance benefits under the old scheme which are detailed under headings of the payments made in the Annual Abstract of Statistics.
§ The Minister of National Insurance (Mr. James Griffiths)The figures asked for are not available as no statistics were maintained of the number of persons receiving each of the benefits under the old scheme.
Mr. WhiteIs it not an extraordinary situation that there are full details of the total payments made on sickness benefits but apparently no record of the number of persons to whom they were made?
§ Mr. GriffithsThat was a defect in the returns made under the old system. They returned the total amount of benefits paid but no details about the number of benefits. That will be corrected when we issue our annual reports under the new scheme.