HC Deb 21 February 1978 vol 944 cc595-6W
Mr. Richard Wainwright

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will make available social security statistics, such as the numbers of supple- mentary benefit claimants, on a parliamentary constituency basis.

Mr. Orme

I regret that it is not practicable to provide social security statistics on a parliamentary constituency basis. Information about the number of supplementary benefit recipients and claimants of short-term national insurance benefits is only available for each local office at which claims are made. Generally each local office covers parts of more than one constituency and it would be impracticable to apportion the number of benefit recipients amongst them.