§ Mr. Strawasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many, in numbers and in percentages, of those who have been unemployed for six months or more in (a) the United Kingdom, (b) the North-West and (c) Blackburn travel-to-work area are (i) aged under 19 years and (ii) aged under 25 years.
§ Mr. Jim Lester[pursuant to his reply, 24 June 1980]: Following is the information as at 10 April, the latest date for which an age analysis of the unemployed is available.
§ Dr. VaughanYes. We decided not to charge for sight tests because we understood that there was risk that some patients who needed to be treated on medical grounds might be deterred from being examined. In order to help maintain the current level of finance for health authorities, we intend to revise the system of optical appliance charges so as to recover as much as possible of the revenue which sight test charges would have raised. We shall be laying regulations to achieve this in due course.