asked the Secretary of State for Social Services why the Supplementary Benefits Commission no longer keeps records of the amount of supplementary benefit paid out to strikers in each dispute; and since when these figures have ceased to be available.

Because of the disproportionate cost, it has never been customary to collect information about supplementary benefit payments in individual trade disputes directly involving less than 300 employees. Information by disputes is available only for the larger stoppages. For all disputes the overall total number of claimants and the amounts of benefit paid to strikers and their families is available.