HC Deb 19 January 1979 vol 960 cc937-8W
Mr. Freud

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) if he will publish the T, U, R and V codes, respectively, used by officers working in local social security offices;

(2)if he will publish the SB, SS and Supp B aide-m érnoire codes, respectively, used by officers working in local social security offices;

(3)if he will publish the PL, PP, PR Manual, RC, and RE codes, respectively, used by officers working in local social security offices;

(4) if he will publish the MB, ME, Mob A, OA and OS codes, respectively, used by officers working in local social security offices;

(5) if he will publish the ICA, IL, IP(A), IP(B), IP(C), L, LP and LR codes, respectively, used by officers working in local social security offices;

(6) if he will publish the F, FI, FL, FP, and FIS codes, respectively, used by officers working in local social security offices;

(7) if he will publish the DG, DI, and EN codes, respectively, used by officers working in local social security offices;

(8) if he will publish the BQ, CA, CAT, CB, CC, CHIB, CN, CP, CR, and CS codes, respectively, used by officers working in local social security offices;

(9) if he will publish the AA, A(ADP), ABC, Ag, AP, AT, and AX codes, respectively, used by officers working in local social security offices;

(10) if he will publish the A code used by officers working in local social security offices;

(11) if he will publish the circulars issued to Department of Health and Social Security local offices in the past year as additions to the existing codes used in the administration of social security.

Mr. Orme:

No. These codes contain largely procedural instructions which would not be helpful to the public in their present form. It would also not be advisable to publish some instructions, for example, some of those dealing with the prevention and detection of fraud and recovering benefit overpayments. My Department, with the Supplementary Benefits Commission, has already published a great deal of information about supplementary benefit policies and entitlement and will continue to publish as much as possible. But the extraction of material from all Departmental codes, or their revision to make them suitable for publication, would be a heavy task requiring substantial staff resources.

However, arising from the supplementary benefits review, it would be our desire to publish as much information as possible.