To ask the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will give the figures allocated for the social fund to be claimed from the Seaham and Peterlee office of his Department for the financial year 1988–89 and the proportions of these which were (a) loans and (b) grants; and whether these figures will be revised if the demand for amounts from the fund exceeds the allocated amounts.

Social fund allocations were announced by my hon. Friend the Minister for Social Security and the Disabled in his reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Wells (Mr. Heathcoat-Amory) on 4 November 1987, at columns 774–81. I refer the hon. Member to my reply to the hon. Member for Maryhill (Mrs. Fyfe) on 4 March, at column 746, for details of the contingency arrangements.