asked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether it remains his intention to move the six-monthly uprating of all long-term benefits.

My right hon. Friend has no such plans. Uprating retirement pensions and other long-term benefits at six-monthly intervals would involve considerable additional expenditure and administrative work which is out of the question in the present economic situation.The proposed increase of 16·5 per cent. from November 1980 takes full account of the estimated movement of prices to November 1980 since the increase in November 1979, which gave retirement pensions their highest-ever purchasing power.