§ Mr. Beithasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what was the total cost to the health service of expenditure on employees' car travel in the latest period since reorganisation for which figures are available; and what was the equivalent figure for a comparable period before reorgansiation, corrected to remove the effect of increases in the mileage rate between the two periods.
§ Mr. MeacherThe information asked for is not available centrally. The returns received do not show mileage allowances separately from other travelling costs and subsistence allowances. In any event there are as yet no complete returns from all regions in respect of any period after National Health Service reorgansiation. Furthermore, a true comparison with the pre-reorganisation situation would be impossible because there is no centrally collected data for those staff who were transferred to the National Health
INJURY BENEFIT Country or Region Number of recipients Weekly expenditure (£1,000) Expenditure per head of working population (£) Great Britain … … 49,760 675.1 0.03 England … … 38,360 519.5 0.027 North … … 6,160 75.2 0.059 Yorkshire and Humberside … … 7,200 95.5 0.048 East Midlands … … 3,720 52.2 0.038 East Anglia … … 880 13.2 0.024 South East … … 7,840 105.2 0.014 South West … … 2,320 31.1 0.024 West Midlands … … 4,040 58.5 0.026 North West … … 6,200 88.6 0.032 Wales … … 5,240 70.6 0.074 Scotland … … 6,160 85.0 0.051 Of the 49,760 persons receiving industrial injury benefit 27,080 also received dependants' allowance. Separate figures for national and regional areas are not available. The expenditure for dependants' allowance is included in the weekly expenditure shown in the third column and is approximately 30 per cent. of that expenditure.
40WService from local authorities on 1st April 1974.