§ Mr. Wigleyasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish an analysis indicating, in relation to the decrease in staff of his Department between 1979 and 1985, how this loss of posts was distributed between (a) his Department's central offices and local offices and (b) between the various standard regions in which these local offices are located; and if he will indicate what changes in functions or services there have been in his Department as a result of this loss of jobs.
§ Mr. NewtonChanges in the staffing levels in the Department from 1979 to 1985 indicating the distribution between central and local offices and between the various regions in which local offices are located are set out in the following tables.
TABLE 3 Numbers of staff in local offices by region (1983 to 1985) Regions 1983 1984 1985 North Eastern 9,449 9,178 9,389 London North 10,018 9,449 9,838 London South 10,043 9,375 9,927 Wales and South Western 8,000 7,696 8,068 Midlands 9,603 9,251 9,413 North Western 9,234 8,699 8,798 Scotland 7,304 7,215 7,706 Notes:
(1) All figures are as at 1 April for each year shown, rounded to nearest whole-time equivalent.
(2) A major restructuring of the regional organisation which included boundary changes and a reduction in the number of regions from 12 to seven took place during 1982–83. The figures in tables 2 and 3 are therefore not wholly and directly comparable with each other.
Staffing levels are kept under continuous review so that resources available match the requirements of the work load. The main factors which influenced staffing levels between 1979 and 1985 were changes in the levels of claims to social security benefits, improvements in 183W procedural and organisational efficiency including computerisation, the results of periodic staff inspections, changes in the structure of benefits and for 1985 the recovery work arising from an industrial dispute at Newcastle central office. The implementation of statutory sick pay and housing benefit in April 1983 together with the introduction of postal claim forms represent the main changes in functions and services from which staff savings arose.