HC Deb 10 April 1984 vol 58 cc201-2W
Mr. Alfred Morris

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services, pursuant to his reply to the right hon. Member for Manchester, Wythenshawe, on 14 March, Official Report, column 194, what is his estimate of the cost of collating information on the causes of spinal cord injuries centrally.

Mr. John Patten

We do not have a specific estimate, but any addition to the range of information collected by computer processing and transferred to magnetic tapes for despatch to the Inland Revenue computer centre. There is no pre-determined order for presentation of information from different employers.

Mr. Ashdown

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many pay-as-you-earn employers make end of year returns on magnetic tape; and how many employees are involved in this arrangement.

Mr. Newton

In respect of the 1982–83 tax year 405 employers and 17 computer bureaux made end of year returns on magnetic tape. The number of employers dealt with by each computer bureaux varies from 150 to 3,000. A total of 11,186,028 national insurance contributions items were received in this medium and posted to national insurance accounts. This does not represent the number of employees because where an employee has more than one employment, either simultaneously or consecutively, each spell of employment in the year generates one end-of-year item.