asked the Secretary of State for Social Services how many persons in Manchester have exhausted their right to unemployment benefit; and what percentage of the unemployed in Manchester they represent.

At February 1982 there were 19,500 unemployed claimants at the 13 unemployment benefit offices in the Manchester area who had exhausted their entitlement to unemployment benefit. This was 32·3 per cent. of the total number of unemployed claimants in that area.