§ Mr. BerminghamTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the total number of welfare milk scheme beneficiaries for each year since 1979 in England and Wales; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. Freeman[holding answer 16 January 1990]: I regret that the information is not available in the form requested. The information that is available is in the table.
Estimate of the weekly number of welfare milk recipientsin Great Britain 1979 to 1989 Year1 Number November 1979 339,000 December 1980 449,000 December 1981 646,000 December 1982 809,000 December 1983 884,000 December 1984 976,000 February 1986 1,068,000 May 1987 1,096,000 June 1987 to May 19882 932,000 May 1988 to December 1989 741,000 1 Information to May 1987 is from the Annual Statistical Enquiry carried out in Social Security local offices. No information is available for 1985.
2 From June 1987 it is an average based on the number of milk tokens surrendered for reimbursement by suppliers of liquid milk. Tokens used to obtain dried baby-milk are not included.