§ Mr. Fosterasked the Secretary of State for Employment, pursuant to the right hon. Member's reply of 10 June, Official Report, c. 142–43, if he will detail, as much as is possible, how the manpower and financial savings proposed in the recommendations in Sir Derek Rayner's report "Payments of Benefits to Unemployed People" would (a) increase, (b) remain constant and (c) decrease in relation to a higher level of unemployment than that assumed in the report.
§ Mr. WaddingtonIt is not possible to provide detailed information for all the recommendations while work is still in progress on the estimates of savings in the report and the recommendations are under consideration in the light of comments received on the consultative document. In broad terms, however, with a higher level of unemployment that is assumed in the report, estimated savings from the changes in unemployment benefit and social security office procedures are likely to increase, while, for example, estimated savings from recommendations relating to the detection of abuse of benefits are unlikely to be significantly affected, and estimated savings from recommendations relating to management levels, where higher unemployment may have reduced the scope for making savings, are likely to decrease.