§ Mr. DewarTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland in how many cases the rent review service was involved in the(a) private and (b) public sector as a result of an application for housing benefit in each of the last three years; and what are his comparable projections for the three years next.
§ Mr. LangThe rent registration service makes determinations on rent levels at the request of local housing authorities, which have responsibility for administering the housing benefit scheme on behalf of the Department of Social Security. The number of such determinations, which relate to the private sector only, including housing associations, made for housing benefit purposes in each of the last three years is as follows:
Number 1991 39,670 1992 45,690 1993 50,251 Projections for future years are not available.
§ Mr. DewarTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) how many staff are employed by the rent review service in Scotland;
(2) what is the present cost of running the rent review service in Scotland in each of the last five years in constant terms;
(3) how many qualified surveyors or staff with a comparable technical qualification were employed by the rent review service in Scotland at the latest date for which figures are available.
§ Mr. LangThe rent registration service in Scotland currently employes 51 staff of whom 24 undertake rent officer duties and 27 are support staff. None are qualified surveyors or staff with a comparable technical qualification.
The costs, including accommodation and other overheads, of running the service in each of the last five years at constant 1993–94 prices, are as follows:
620W
£ million 1989–90 2.096 1990–91 1.946 1991–92 1.987
£ million 1992–93 1.695 1993–941 1.728 1 Provisional outturn.