§ Mr. Baldryasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the present formula for making extreme weather payments; whether he has any proposals to make changes to the formula; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. MajorI refer my hon. Friend to my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Dumfries (Sir H. Monro) on 20 November, at columns326–27. The current arrangements for exceptionally severe weather payments are described in the report on the new arrangements by the Social Security Advisory Committee (Cm. 18).
§ Mr. Gordon Brownasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will explain why temperatures calculated for the exceptionally severe weather allowance for the Cowdenbeath area are to be calculated at Turnhouse airport.
§ Mr. MajorNational climatological message stations (NCMs) have been linked to local office areas in 403W consultation with the Meteorological Office taking account of factors such as climatological conditions, the reliability of information produced and the speed with which information could be passed onto the Meteorological Office.
Meteorological data collected by the Turnhouse (Edinburgh Airport) NCM is considered to be the more representative of conditions in the area including Cowdenbeath area. This station is nearer to Cowdenbeath than the Tummel bridge station.
§ Mr. Gordon Brownasked the Secretary of State for Social Services with regard to single payment regulation No. 26, how many times temperatures at (a) Tomme bridge and (b) Turnhouse have fallen below a weekly average of -1.5°C in (a) the most recent four years and (b) the most recent 10 years.
§ Mr. MajorThe information held by this Department was published as annex B to the Secretary of State's statement on the report of the Social Security Advisory Committee on proposals for a new scheme of exceptionally cold weather payment (Cm. 18).