§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what operational problems in the analytical services division of the Independent Tribunal Service prevented figures being given for social security and medical appeals tribunals in 1995. [19296]
§ Mr. Roger EvansThe Department's analytical services division is responsible for producing and publishing statistical information regarding social security and medical appeal tribunals. It obtains data relating to social security appeals from the Independent Tribunal Service's computer systems. Due to problems with the computer system serving the Independent Tribunal Service's north-west region, data for the final quarter of 1995 were not available for inclusion in the annual publication "Social Security Statistics 1996". Figures for the final quarter are contained in the "Quarterly Social Security Appeal Tribunal Statistics December 1995", a copy of which is available in the Library.
Data relating to medical appeal tribunals were not affected by the computer problem. However, owing to competing work priorities, the data for the final quarter of 1995 had not been fully processed by analytical services division when "Social Security Statistics 1996" was due for publication. Figures for the final quarter of 1995 are contained in "Quarterly Medical Appeal Tribunal Statistics", a copy of which is available in the Library.
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§ Mr. Roger EvansThe administration of family credit is a matter for Peter Mathison, chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member.
Letter from Peter Mathison to Ms Rachel Squire, dated 19 March 1997:
The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many families were in receipt of Family Credit (FC) in the Fife Benefits Agency office area in each quarter since February 1995.The information is not available in the format requested. It may be helpful if I explain that FC is administered centrally by the Family Credit Unit. Statistics are produced on a national basis and provide the number of families in receipt of FC within a particular Benefits Agency (BA) office area at a given date. Such details are not produced on a regular monthly or quarterly basis. The information available only serves as a "snap-shot" of the position at that date and does not provide details of the number of families in receipt of FC over a given period.There are 4 benefit offices within the Fife District, these are Cowdenbeath, Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy and Leven. FC statistics relating to each of these offices produced since February 1995 have been provided in the attached annex.I hope you find this information useful.