§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Don Valley of 4 June,Official Report, columns 109–10, what information is kept on the levels of expenditure of pensioners; and to what extent this is broken down geographically.
§ Miss WiddecombeInformation on expenditure patterns is extracted from the family expenditure survey. While the published version does not give information on pensioners' expenditure below the national level the information can be broken down by region, although in many cases this can be achieved only at disproportionate334W cost while in others the size of the sample is too small to support a valid inference. The 11 regions in Great Britain are: the North, Yorkshire and Humberside, the North-West, the East Midlands, the West Midlands, East Anglia, Greater London, the South-East (excluding Greater London), the South-West, Wales and Scotland. Data can also be provided by type of administrative area, viz; Greater London, the Metropolitan district and Central Clydeside conurbation, non-metropolitan districts (with high population density) and non-metropolitan districts (with low population density), but the same caveats apply.