§ Mr. Tom Benyonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will publish the report of the working party on bone marrow transplants; and what actions he intends to take on its recommendations.
§ Mr. Kenneth Clarke:I welcome the report of the working party on bone marrow transplantation which I am publishing today. I am very grateful to Sir Douglas Black and his colleagues for preparing such a full report on a very important problem.
Among its recommendations the working party proposed that bone marrow transplantations should not be developed as a regional service, but should be reviewed with other services suitable for supra-regional development. I agree that plans for a service must take account of the needs throughout England and Wales and use of resources. It cannot be developed separately in every region. We will therefore now be considering the proposals for bone marrow transplantation on that basis. It will therefore be included in the review of supra-regional specialties that we are already consulting with the NHS upon.
Number of non-pensioner claimants at offices dealing with the Birmingham, Northfield constituency 31 August 1982 1 September 1981 2 September 1980 4 September 1979 Supplementary benefits Birmingham, Edgbaston Non-pensioners 10,387 7,998 5,339 4,788 Pensioners 5,857 5,453 4,342 4,374 Birmingham, Northfield Non-pensioners 9,188 7,280 5,753 5,802 Pensioners 4,858 4,611 5,225 5,119 Contributory benefits Birmingham, Edgbaston Non-pensioners 937 1,385 1,213 1,278 Pensioners 948 1,286 889 1,037 Birmingham, Northfield Non-pensioners 976 1,320 2,117 2,114 Pensioners 1,029 980 958 1,074 Figures for supplementary benefits are the number of cases in action on the dates shown. Figures for contributory benefits are the number of claims received in the four week period ended on the date shown.