§ Mr. Peter Reesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) in what circumstances a person will be offered a free railway or bus ticket or financial assistance with his travel arrangements;
(2) in what circumstances his Department is authorised to issue first-class travel warrants to members of the public;
(3) in how many cases repayment of the cost of rail travel warrants issued by social security offices to persons without funds have been reclaimed over the past five years and with what success; and in what circumstances such repayments are waived;
(4) whether he has called for an investigation into the circumstances in which a travel warrant issued by the Department of Social Security in Dover to Mr. Taylor of Bradford was altered so as to authorise him to receive a first-class railway ticket from Dover to Bradford.
§ Mr. OrmeThe Supplementary Benefits Commission has discretionary powers to pay benefit where necessary to prevent hardship, and stranded people may be helped in whatever way seems most appropriate and economical. First-class travel is never authorised. Because such payments are few, no special records are
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RATES PER 10,000 FEMALE POPULATION OF NON-URGENT CASES ON WAITING LIST FOR GYNAECOLOGY AT 30TH SEPTEMBER 1975 AND 31ST MARCH 1976 Gynaecology Number of Non-Urgent cases per 10,000 female population Number of cases on list for over 1 year per 10,000 female population September 1975 March 1976 September 1975 March 1976 All England* … 27.4 31.1 5.1 5.6 Northern … 19.9 25.3 1.6 1.8 Yorkshire … 28.4 30.1 5.3 4.7 Trent … 24.6 25.9 6.3 5.9 East Anglia … 29.6 34.3 5.2 5.3 North-West Thames … 28.4 30.7 3.1 4.2 North-East Thames … 21.0 27.3 2.2 2.6 South-East Thames … 23.4 28.0 5.0 4.4 South-West Thames … 25.4 27.2 4.3 5.6 Wessex … 25.1 27.2 2.4 2.0 Oxford … 28.3 36.3 2.7 5.3 South-Western … 35.3 37.1 7.1 7.2 West Midlands … 25.5 27.6 4.8 5.5 Mersey … 31.8 35.4 6.1 8.7 North-Western … 37.1 45.4 12.2 14.0 * Figures for Preserved Boards of Governors are included only in the "England" figure. Management population, females only, used (mid-1975). kept of costs subsequently recovered; whether recovery is feasible depends on the particular circumstances of each case. It appears from our inquiries that, through an error, the travel warrant issued to Mr. Taylor was not fully completed, which made it possible for it to be used for first-class travel.