Parliamentary Answers (Hansard, 21 March 1997)

§ Mrs. Clwyd

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many questions were tabled for reply by his Department in each Session since 1979–80; in how many instances in each year the reply has been that providing

	1979–80	1980–81	1981–82	1982–83	1983–84
	£billions	Per cent.	£billions	Per cent.	£billions	Per cent.	£billions	Per cent.	£billions	Per cent.
Total income	45.53	—	46.43	—	45.01	—	45.78	—	44.93	—
Class 1¹: Employees	11.23	25	11.63	25	13.04	29	15.59	34	16.60	37
Employees	18.01	40	18.20	39	17.36	39	17.95	39	18.64	41
Class 1A	0.00	0	0.00	0	0.00	0	0.00	0	0.00	0
Class 2/4 (self-employed)	0.71	2	0.68	10.75	2	0.87	2	0.99	2

1028W

the information involved disproportionate cost; and in how many instances in each year questions have been given the reply that the information was not available centrally. [16788]

§ Mr Burt

The information is not available in the form requested. Such information as is available is in the table.

Seession	Total PQs tabled	Disproportionate cost replies	Not centrally available replies
1983–84^{1 2}	7,058	n/a	n/a
1984–85^{1 2}	5,703	n/a	n/a
1985–86^{1 2}	6,056	n/a	n/a
1986–87^{1 2}	4,184	n/a	n/a
1987–88^{1 2}	7,312	n/a	n/a
1988–89²	2,510	n/a	n/a
1989–90²	2,526	n/a	n/a
1990–91²	2,120	n/a	n/a
1991–92²	1,140	n/a	n/a
1992–93³	3,244	117	17
1993–94³	2,359	129	6
1994–95³	2,749	123	25
1995–96³	2,817	145	17
1996–97⁴	1,541	30	9
¹ Figures are for the Department of Health and Social Security.	² Source: POLIS Database.	³ Source: Department archive of Written Answers; figures were obtained by a count and may be subject to error.	⁴ As at 17 March 1997.