§ Mr. Carter-Jonesasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give his Department's best estimate of the numbers of persons in the age groups 60–70 years, 70–75 years, 75–80 years and over 80 years for the years 1970, 1975, 1980, 1985, 1990 and 1995; and if he will indicate what proportion in each year of each age group may be classified as frail elderly.
§ Sir George YoungEstimates of the population of England and Wales for past years are given below, together with mid-1979 based projections. The proportion of persons in each age-group who might be classified as "frail" are not given because of lack of appropriate data and the difficulties involved in a subjective judgment. An article entitled "The elderly: age differences in the quality of life" by Audrey Hunt published in Population Trends 11 (a copy of which may be found in the House of
428Wschool leavers and to others on application, is to tell people their national insurance numbers. The officials from the Department who carried out the Rayner scrutiny on the validation of national insurance contribution records recommended that the present cardboard card should be replaced by a plastic one serving exactly the same purpose. That recommendation is currently under consideration, together with the others in the scrutiny team's report.