asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will list the local authorities he assesses to be making full use of their powers to prevent abuse in housing benefit, referred to in paragraph 3·9 of the report of the housing benefit review team, Cmnd. 9520.

The housing benefit review team's conclusion that only a minority of authorities are making full use of existing powers to prevent abuse was based on information from a sample of local authorities.

asked the Secretary of State for Social Services what is the present expenditure by local authorities on local schemes of housing benefit; and what costs these represent to central Government.

Information from authorities' initial housing benefit subsidy claims indicates that benefit expenditure on local schemes will be about £30 million in 1985–86. Expenditure on local schemes does not qualify for direct subsidy but, in the case of rent rebates and allowance, it counts as relevant expenditure for block grant purposes for local authorities in England and Wales.