§ Mr. Fieldasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list the details of each of the codes used by insurance
298Wtabular form for each year since 1970 details of payments of supplementary benefits relating to persons taking industrial action, showing the numbers involved in disputes long enough to enable a claim to be made, the percentage of the total involved in industrial action of those eligible to claim, numbers receiving benefit, average total amount to each recipient, average individual payment made, and recipients as a percentage of those eligible to claim; and if he will show the value of individual payments at 1970 terms.
§ Mr. PrenticeThe information is as follows. The answer to the first part of the hon. Member's question is in terms of those involved in a trade dispute lasting more than two weeks, since the first two weeks are usually covered by final earnings.
officers of his Department in determining benefit.
§ Mr. PrenticeInsurance officers are assisted in the determination of claims for benefit by two documents produced by the chief insurance officer—an insurance officer's guide as to the law and a code—Code AR—providing standard forms of wording to enable decisions to be expressed in legally correct terms. The relevant statutes provide for an independent jurisdiction: departmental instructions, therefore, do not deal with the determination of entitlement but only with procedural matters.