The Rt. Hon. Sir John Major KG CH

Category: 1983-1987 Parliament

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Benefits – 18 June 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Benefits on 18th June 1986.

    Mr. Allen Adams Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if there are any sources of information that officials from his Department may not take into account when assessing a claimant’s benefit; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr. Major Decisions on claims for social security benefits are made by independent adjudication officers using information put to them by officials acting for the Secretary of State. Officials may gather from any source readily available information which they consider relevant but it is the adjudication officer’s function to assess the relevance and reliability of any information or evidence in making his decision. If the hon. Member has a particular case in mind he may care to write to me.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Housing Benefit – 18 June 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Housing Benefit on 18th June 1986.

    Mr. Heddle Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish in the Official Report the percentage of domestic ratepayers in each local authority who receive housing benefit.

    Mr. Major Information is not available in the precise form requested. However, a table giving estimates of the average number of rate rebate recipients (based on local and regional authorities’ subsidy claims for 1985-86) as a proportion of the number of domestic hereditaments (subjects in Scotland) at April 1985 has been placed in the Library.

    Mr. Andrew Bowden Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the most recent annual estimate of take-up of standard housing benefit, housing benefit supplement and supplementary benefit among retirement pensioners; and what is the estimated total amount remaining unclaimed in each of these three categories.

    Mr. Major I shall let my hon. Friend have a reply as soon as possible.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Health Records (Law Enforcement) – 17 June 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Health Records (Law Enforcement) on 17th June 1986.

    Mr. Ashdown Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will describe the circumstances in which information may be disclosed from medical records and from National Health Service records for any purpose of law enforcement; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr. Major Safeguarding the confidentiality of medical and other National Health Service records is primarily an ethical matter for the health professionals concerned. The disclosure of identifiable personal information from such records for a purpose other than that for which it was obtained would usually require the agreement of the doctors concerned, who would decide whether the consent of the patient should also be sought.

    Professional guidance recognises that there may be cases, for example those involving serious crime, when the public interest outweighs the patient’s right to confidentiality. The decision to disclose information would usually be for the doctor to make in the light of the circumstances of a particular case.

    The department is currently preparing a Code on Confidentiality of Personal Health Information in the National Health Service which it is intended will be given statutory force and which will set out the limited circumstances in which personal health information may be disclosed without the patient’s consent.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Benefits (Fraud) – 17 June 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Benefits (Fraud) on 17th June 1986.

    Mr. Ashdown Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will describe the circumstances in which information from the National Health Service central register may be made available to regional office staff or to local office staff in the course of investigating actual or suspected fraud by social security claimants; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr. Major On request from a DHSS regional controller, National Health Service central register will supply the name and date of birth appropriate to a NHS number shown on a medical card that has been used as a means of identification when cashing a social security giro cheque which subsequently has been found to he fraudulent.

    NHSCR assistance is provided on the grounds that a person who voluntarily produces a medical card as evidence of identity should be willing to accept a check on that identity by the authorities concerned; and if the card used does not relate to the person who produced it the proper holder has apparently lost it and the current holder has no title to it.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on the NHS Central Register – 17 June 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on the NHS Central Register on 17th June 1986.

    Mr. Ashdown Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will name, list and describe what records are kept of disclosures of information from the National Health Services central register; and if he will publish a summary of the relevant statistics for 1985.

    Mr. Major The National Health Service central register is an integral part of the patient registration system administered by family practitioner committees. Patient information held there is limited to name, date of birth, NHS number and an indication of which FPC currently holds the patient’s registration with a NHS doctor.

    Disclosure of information from NHS central register records is almost entirely confined to FPCs and the NHS units for whom NHSCR acts as a clearing house for greater efficiency in the administration of Family Practitioner Services.

    Information relating to mortality and cancer registrations obtained via OPCS is also used to help researchers in approved medical research and statistical studies, and, also clinicians following up their own patients. Indirect assistance in communicating with patients is provided, with the approval and co-operation of FPC administrators, in circumstances which are clearly to the advantage of the patient or in cases of family separation, illness or bereavement. Assistance is provided to courts seeking to issue or enforce maintenance orders, or orders in respect of wards of court; to police in cases of serious crime and to DHSS to identify the owners of medical cards used in suspected fraudulent encashment of social security cheques.

    Apart from the disclosure of information to bodies within the National Health Service and to research studies, requests for information from other sources amount to approximately 1,200 per year.

    Mr. Ashdown Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether instructions have been issued to staff of his Department on the subject of obtaining disclosure of information from the National Health Service central register in the course of investigating actual or suspected fraud by social security claimants; and if he will make a statement.

    Mr. Major It is not in the public interest to disclose operational procedures for the investigation of social security fraud.

    Mr. Ashdown Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish the instructions under which information from the National Health Service central register may be disclosed for any purpose of law enforcement, including disclosure to staff of his Department investigating actual or suspected fraud by social security claimants.

    Mr. Major The Code of Guidance used by the National Health Service central register states – there may sometimes be exceptional circumstances which justify the disclosure of information to a law enforcement agency if it can help prevent or detect the commission of a serious crime or bring the criminal to justice… Serious crime may be deemed to include murder, manslaughter, rape, kidnapping, acts of terrorism, causing explosions likely to end life or cause damage to property, possession of firearms with intent to injure, hostage taking, hi-jacking, serious harm to the security of the State or to public order, serious interference with the administration of justice. The onus should be on the enquirer to satisfy NHSCR that the crime is sufficiently serious and that the task of preventing or detecting it would be seriously prejudiced if disclosure were not to be made.” (In all requests to trace patients the Administrator of the appropriate Family Practitioner Committee would be fully involved.) Arrangements have been agreed to help DHSS fraud officers where a medical card has been used as a means of identification when cashing a social security giro cheque which subsequently is found to be fraudulent. NHSCR assistance is provided in response only to a written request from a regional controller and is usually limited to providing the identity of the person recorded against the stated NHS number”.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Departmental Staff – 17 June 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Departmental Staff on 17th June 1986.

    Mr. Skinner Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services (1) how many people were employed by his Department in the east midlands in 1979 and at the latest available date;(2) how many people were employed in clerical positions by his Department in the east midlands in 1979 and at the latest available date.

    Mr. Major I assume that the hon. Member is referring to those offices which were in the Department’s east midlands and east Anglia region and were transferred to the midland region on reorganisation in August 1982.

    Information is not available in the precise form requested. The complement allocated to east midlands offices for April 1979 and the intended 1 July 1986 staff allocation are set out in the table. They reflect overall reductions in work load over the period mainly due to the introduction of housing benefit and statutory sick pay.

    Total Staff | Number of Clerical Staff
    1979 | 3,747 | 2,559
    1986 | 3,814 | 2,319.5

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Severe Weather Payments – 17 June 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Severe Weather Payments on 17th June 1986.

    Mr. Deakins Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the average amount paid to each claimant in severe weather payments in the United Kingdom, in England and in East Sussex, respectively; and what has been the average time delay in making such payments.

    Mr. Major The information is not available. When the period during which payments are likely to be made is over, local offices will be asked to make a return so that the average amount paid can be calculated.

    Mr. Deakins Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many claims for severe weather payments were made in his Department’s offices in Brighton, Leicester and Walthamstow in 1985 and 1986; how many of the claims in each year were successful; and what was the average sum paid out.

    Mr. Major Separate information on the number of claims for exceptionally severe weather payments is not collected. The total number of payments made in 1985 by these offices was as follows:

    Local Office | Number of Payments | Average Amount in £
    Brighton | 374 | 9.77
    Leicester:
    Burleys Way | 501 | 9.08
    Lower Hill Street | 323 | 7.38
    Norton Street | 740 | 14.00
    Yeoman Street | 676 | 13.85
    Walthamstow | 522 | 9.92

    Information for 1986 is not available. When the period during which payments are likely to be made is over, local offices will be asked to make a return so that the number of payments and the average amount can be calculated.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on British Pensioners- 17 June 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on British Pensioners on 17th June 1986.

    Mr. Andrew Bowden Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what estimate he has of the additional annual cost of paying British retirement and widowed pensioners aged 75 years and over living (a) in Canada and (b) in South Africa, the rate of pension they would receive if living in the United Kingdom.

    Mr. Major On the basis of a full year at today’s pension levels, the additional cost of paying British retirement and widows’ pensions at rates current in the United Kingdom to pensioners aged 75 years and over living(a) in Canada and (b) in South Africa would be approximately £9.9 million and £3 million respectively.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Supplementary Benefit Claimants – 16th June 1986

    Below is the text of the Written Parliamentary Answer on Supplementary Benefit Claimants from 16 June 1986.

    Mr. Meacher asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list the number of supplementary benefit claimants at (a) Westfield House, Law Russell House and Leeds Road, Bradford, and (b) nationally, for the latest available year.

    Mr. Major The numbers of people receiving supplementary benefit from the three specified Bradford offices on 6 May 1986, together with the national figure for the same date are as follows:

    Number

    Westfield House (Bradford West) 13,755
    Law Russell House (Bradford South) 13,510
    Leeds Road (Bradford West) 14,065
    Nationally 5,085,627
    Source: 100 per cent. count of live cases in action.

  • Mr Major’s Written Parliamentary Answer on Housing Benefit – 16 June 1986

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Housing Benefit on 16th June 1986.

    Mr. Meacher Asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list the number of, average amount paid, and annual cost of, housing benefit paid to (a) 16-year olds, (b) 17-year-olds and (c) 18-year-olds, respectively, for the latest available year.

    Mr. Major This information is not collected centrally, and, I regret, could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.