§ Dr. Mawhinneyasked the Secretary of State for Employment how many questionnaires his Department sent out in January to April 1978, 1979 and 1980 which the recipients (a) were statutorily required to complete and (b) were not statutorily required to complete.
§ Mr. MayhewMany of the questionnaires sent out by the Department of Employment group relate to specific requests for information, for example, on behalf of claimants for unemployment benefit, job seekers and employers in the course of day-to-day business in some 2,000 local offices and the required information is not available except at disproportionate cost. The information available relates to statistical surveys for which the number of questionnaires issued by the Department of Employment group during the periods concerned were as follows :
(a) Statutory (b) Voluntary* January-April 1978 311,000 9,000 January-April 1979 310,000 14,000 January-April 1980 310,000 13,000 * Excluding some small scale surveys carried out on behalf of the DE group by other organisations.