§ Mr. Rookerasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will make a statement detailing the capacity and utilisation of his Department's computers dealing with unemployment benefit.
§ Mr. Patrick Jenkin:Under present procedures the computers dealing with unemployment benefit and associated supplementary allowances have the capability of handling the claims arising from a total register of 2.4 million unemployed. The linking of unemployment benefit offices to the computer centres is not yet complete but the computer system is currently handling 1.65 million claims.