§ Mr. Rookerasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement detailing any reduction or abolition in the collection or publication of statistics or reports by his Department since May 1979, indicating if such information is available from any other source; 80W and what financial savings have been made by any such changes.
§ Mr. Whitelaw:Since May 1979 the triennial report on the work of the probation and after-care department of the Home Office has been discontinued; statistics are published annually in "Probation and after-care statistics". A significant saving has been achieved by the abolition from the beginning of 1980 of landing cards for EC nationals; estimates of arrivals of EC nationals are available from the international passenger survey. In addition, small reductions have been made in the frequency and/or content of some routine returns from prison department establishments, the immigration service, police forces and coroners. A substantial reduction has been made in the size of the annual publication of betting licensing statistics. The financial savings from these changes could be quantified only at disproportionate cost. None of them result from the current review of Government statistical services.