§ Mr. Concannonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services, further to his letter of 9 March to the right hon. Member for Mansfield turning down the suggestion from Mansfield Kidney Patients' Association to send kidney donor cards with the new national insurance cards, if he will specify the practical and administrative difficulties referred to.
§ Mr. John PattenThe production of the new plastic national insurance number card is fully automated. The equipment is purpose-built and could not be adapted to enable the kidney donor card to be issued as part of the same process. The practical and administrative difficulties referred to in the letter related to the possibility of issuing donor cards with the old manila national insurance card. It was found that the mechanical process then in use could not be modified to issue donor cards as well. Instead, it would have been necessary to use a part manual, part mechanical process which would have been staff-intensive, slow and costly.