§ Mr. Home Robertsonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many employers in Scotland did not receive contribution tables reflecting the reduction in 140W national insurance surcharge at the appropriate time; what was the cause of the delay; what was the cost of issuing duplicate tables to all Scottish private sector employers; and if he will compensate the employers concerned for the extra administrative costs which have been caused by this delay.
§ Dr. BoysonOn the question of delay, I refer the hon. Member to my reply to the hon. Member for Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber (Mr. Johnston) on 11 November 1983.—[Vol. 48, c.249.]
The Department does not maintain central records of employers, and, in the case of Scotland, arranges for the Inland Revenue's computer centre at East Kilbride to produce addressed labels for all Scottish employers on their mailing list—some 80,000. These address labels are used by a mailing contractor to distribute the main National Insurance contribution table, form CF391 (non-contracted-out contribution tables). Addressed labels were produced by East Kilbride and sent to the mailing contractor on 17 May 1983; but the contractor did not receive them.
As explained in my reply to the hon. Member for Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber, steps were taken to remedy the problem as soon as the failure to distribute the tables became known to the Department. A publicity campaign was mounted to encourage employers to collect tables from Scottish local offices. This was seen at the time as the quickest and most economical remedy, and many employers obtained their tables in this way. However, when it later became apparent that the publicity campaign had not been a complete success, it was decided to make a full distribution of the tables. The cost of issuing tables to Scottish employers was nearly £25,000. The cost of putting extra contribution tables in Scottish local offices to cope with demands following the publicity was about £1,000.
I very much regret that employers will have had to cope with some extra administrative work as a result of these delays. I fear, however, that I am not able to offer any compensation for this.