§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment, pursuant to his reply of 10 December,Official Report, column 230, in which offices the additional 90 staff in support of adjudication officers have been located; what is the number of adjudication officers in each unemployment benefit office; what is the number of new unemployment benefit claims at each office in the last financial year; and what is the current number of unemployment benefit claimants at each office.
§ Mr. LeeAdjudication officers are not attached to individual unemployment benefit offices. They work in groups which cover a number of offices. The additional 90 support posts were allocated in the two years to August 1987, on the basis of regional assessments of need. Since the creation of the employment service, adjudication officers have been reorganised into new regional groups and the additional 90 posts cannot be specifically identified.
The number of adjudication officers and their support staff in post on 21 January 1988 in each employment service region was as follows:
Employment Service Region Adjudication Officers Support Staff Northern 32 20 Yorkshire and Humberside 50 44 East Midlands 48 42 London and South-East 133 91 South-West 53 43 Wales 34 21 West Midlands 51 37 North-West 72 62 Scotland 51 40 Total 524 400 Regional statistics on new claims to unemployment benefit are collected by the Department of Health and Social Security. These could only be disaggregated by local benefit office at disproportionate cost. The regional totals are as follows:
160W
DHSS Region New Claims to Unemployment Benefit 1986–87 South-East 1,495,823 East Anglia 166,936 South-West 399,868 West Midlands 458,209 East Midlands 331,212 Yorkshire and Humberside 500,444 North-West 670,064 Northern 347,324 Wales 277,672 Scotland 613,181 Total 5,260,733 DHSS and Employment Service regions are not conterminous. Details of the number of people claiming unemployment benefit at each office are also collected by DHSS and published in "Unemployment Benefit Statistics— Quarterly Analysis of Unemployment Claimants" a copy of which is in the Library.