asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if she will change the regulations governing national insurance contributions which prevent employees who are paid four-weekly to be calculated by reference to each individual week's earnings, thereby causing them to contribute at a higher rate than if they were weekly paid.

No. The general principle is to relate liability to the earnings paid at their normal regular interval, without seeking to establish in which particular days or weeks each pay packet has been earned. This principle was well established under the former graduated scheme and provides the clearest possible basis for contribution liability, bearing in mind the widely differing practice by which earnings are computed and paid.