§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will take action to investigate how and 213W why details of his proposals for increased pension rates were leaked to the Press before an announcement was made to the House of Commons.
§ Sir K. JosephNo, because there has been no leak. No new pension rates have been announced, and no newspaper has had unauthorised information. The recent White Paper on Public Expenditure published on 28th January affirmed the Government's intention to review retirement pensions and related benefits this year. I reiterated this intention during the debate on 4th February.