§ Mr. Lofthouseasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the present level of staffing of his Department's offices in the Castleford travel-to-work area; and what was the comparable figure for May 1979.
§ Mr. MajorInformation is not available in the precise form requested. The approved complement for May 1979 and the staff allocation for 1 July 1986 in respect of each of the offices in the Castleford travel-to-work area are set out in the table. They reflect overall reductions in workload over the period mainly due to the introduction of housing benefit and statutory sick pay.
577W
Complement May 1979 Staff allocation 1 July 1986 Castleford AO 47 61 Castleford NIO 63 *37 Normanton NIO 14 (1) Hemsworth ILO 86 71 Pontefract ILO 97 84 Wakefield ILO 156 151 * Normanton NIO was merged with Castleford NIO in September 1982, and 13 posts were transferred to Castleford NIO's complement. Abbreviations: ILO—Integrated Local office;
NIO—National Insurance Office;
AO — Area Office (dealing with supplementary benefit only).
1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 Yorkshire and Humberside Region* 287,678 291,737 333,760† 404,279 429,906 455,812 475,762 483,176 Castleford 4,366 4,452 5,170 6,195 6,402 6,624 6,991 7,236 Hemsworth 2,502 2,670 3,214 3,850 4,057 4,489 4,684 4,784 Pontefract 3,743 3,767 4,708 5,463 5,695 6,210 6,552 6,550 Wakefield 6,630 6,714 7,863 9,128 9,981 10,775 11,529 11,616 * Yorkshire and Humberside region was merged with Northern region in 1982 to form the present North Eastern region. But for the sake of consistency, the table shows, for 1983 onwards, the total figures for those offices which were formerly part of Yorkshire and Humberside region. † Figures for the region as a whole show the position at February 1981. Source: 100 per cent. count of cases in action.