§ Mr. Richard Wainwrightasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many staff are employed in each of his Department's offices within the areas served by the Kirklees metropolitan borough council and Oldham metropolitan borough council; how many staff were employed by those offices for the same period in 1979; how many supplementary benefit cases were dealt with by those offices in 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1982; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. NewtonThe number of staff in offices in the areas served by the Kirklees metropolitan borough council and Oldham metropolitan borough council was as follows:
1 Dec. 1979 1 Dec. 1979 Kirkless Huddersfield 204 216 Dewsbury 175 181 Oldham Oldham 214 235 The staffing figures for 1 December 1982 are for the number of staff employed on that date. Comparable information is not available for earlier years and details supplied are of the number of staff allocated to cope with the work loads then current. I draw the hon. Member's attention to the guide to the Department's local office complementing system, now in the Library, which explains the relationship between staffing levels and work loads.
For supplementary benefit cases dealt with, I refer the hon. Member to my reply to his other question today.