The Committee was nominated on 14 July 1997.

It had 11 Members and held 51 meetings.

Members	Meetings attended
Kirkwood, Mr Archy (Chairman)	49
Buck, Ms Karen	41
Coaker, Mr Vernon (added, 9.11.98)	0
Dismore, Mr Andrew (added, 9.11.98)	0
Flight, Mr Howard (added, 20.7.98)	5
Foster, Mr Michael (Hastings and Rye) (added 9.11.98)	0
Gibb, Mr Nick (discharged, 20.7.98)	28
Goggins, Mr Paul (added, 28.11.97)(discharged, 9.11.98)	36
Hewitt, Ms Patricia (discharged, 9.11.98)	39
Humble, Mrs Joan (added, 9.11.98)	0
Kirkbride, Miss Julie	38
Leigh, Mr Edward	42
McDonagh, Siobhain (discharged, 28.11.97)	5
Mountford, Kali (added, 9.11.98)	0
Pond, Mr Chris	42
Roy, Mr Frank (discharged, 9.11.98)	34
Stuart, Ms Gisela (discharged, 9.11.98)	45
Wicks, Mr Malcolm (discharged, 9.11.98)	47

Overall attendance:   78.8 %

Number of Members added:  7

Number of Members discharged:  7

Turnover of membership during the Session:   64 %

Staff

Committee Clerk: Mr L C Laurence Smyth, Grade 5.

Other Committee staff: Ms J Hughes, Assistant Clerk, Grade A3 (from 1 October 1997 until 23 January 1998); Mr P A Shelley, Assistant Clerk, Grade A3 (from 1 October 1998); Mr A Brazier, Specialist Assistant, Grade 8 (until 31 July 1998); Ms J Allbeson, Specialist Assistant, Grade 8 (from 2 October 1998); Mrs D B Nelson, Higher Executive Officer; Grade 10, Ms L Booth, Secretary, Grade 13 (until 17 June 1997); Mrs L Andrews, Secretary, Grade 13 (from 18 June 1997 until 13 July 1997); Mrs J Kalogerides, Secretary, Grade 13 (from 14 July 1997 until 27 September 1998) and Ms M Sullivan, Secretary, Grade 13 (from 28 September 1998).

Specialist Advisers during the Session

Professor Jonathan Bradshaw, Mr Chris Giles, Ms Marilyn Howard, Mr Allan Martin, and Ms Maggie Rae.

Witnesses

Oral evidence was given during the Session by the following categories of witnesses:

Number of appearances by:-

Cabinet Ministers:  1

Other Ministers:  6 (of which 2 were by a Member of the House of Lords)

Number of appearances by officials from, or representatives of:-

Department of Social Security:  12

other departments:  10

comprising:- Treasury  4

Inland Revenue  4

Lord Chancellor's Department  2

executive agencies:  9

 comprising:- Benefits Agency  9

Child Support Agency  1

non-departmental public bodies:  4

comprising:- Disability Living Allowance Advisory Board  4

Appearances by other witnesses:  70 (of whom 1 was a Member of the House of Lords)

Overseas Visits

Date	Destination	Members	Staff	Purpose	Cost
30.11-6.12.97	Washington DC and Wisconsin,U.S.A.	9	2	Social Security Reforms: Lessons from the United States of America	£51,451.46

.

Visits to European Institutions in Brussels and Strasbourg

Date	Destination	Members	Staff	Purpose	Cost
3.3.98	European Commission, Brussels	5	2	Meetings with UKREP and European Commission Officials	£3,262.11

UK Visits

Date	Destination	Members	Staff	Purpose	Cost
14-15.10.97	Leeds and Newcastle	9	5	Benefits Agency and Contributions Agency	£3,018.91
23.2.98	Kensington	6	4	Constituency visit	£150.00
2.3.98	Birmingham	7	3	Constituency visit	£557.25
27.7.98	ICL Pathway, Feltham, Middx.	3	1	Briefing on benefit payment card	£51.00
20.10.98	Blackpool and Preston	3	3	Visit to Family Credit operations	£1,031.37

Reports and Minutes of Evidence  

Title	HC No. (1997-98)	Date of publication	No. of pages	Sale price	Government   reply
First Report: Tax and Benefits: An Interim Report	283	24.11.97	358	£25.67	Not required
Second Report: Social Security Reforms: Lessons from the United States of America	552	18.2.98	71	£10.60	Not required
Third Report: Tax and Benefits: Pre-Budget Report	423	11.3.98	156	£17.00	Received 19.5.98 published as First Special Report, Session 1997-98
Fourth Report: Disability Living Allowance	641	20.5.98	204	£19.50	Cm 4007, 23.7.98
Fifth Report: Pensions on Divorce	869	28.10.98	277	£22.00	Reply awaited
First Special Report: Government's Response to Third Report from the Committee, Session 1997-98, Tax and Benefits: Pre-Budget Report	756	22.5.98	4	£1.45	Not applicable
Minutes of Evidence: Pensions	516-i	13.3.98	18	£4.75	Not applicable
Minutes of Evidence: The Case for Social Security Reform	587-i	1.4.98	20	£5.50	Not applicable
Minutes of Evidence: Welfare Reform Green Paper and the Department of Social Security Departmental Report	587-ii	1.6.98	31	£7.00	Not applicable
Minutes of Evidence: Active Modern Service	587-iii	25.6.98	26	£6.20	Not applicable
Minutes of Evidence: Success Measures	777-i	24.6.98	21	£5.50	Not applicable
	777-ii	21.7.98	27	£6.20	Not applicable
Minutes of Evidence: Child Benefit Fraud	1021-i	29.9.98	32	£8.00	Not applicable
Minutes of Evidence: Child Support	1031-i	15.9.98	20	£5.50	Not applicable

Divisions

Date	Subject
4.3.98 13.5.98	Seven, on consideration of amendments to Chairman's draft Report on Tax and Benefits: Pre-Budget Report. Two, on consideration of amendments to Chairman's draft Report on Disability Living Allowance.

Debates

The following Reports were referred to on the Order Paper as being relevant to debates in the House:

First Report, 1997-98, Tax and Benefits: An Interim Report, on a Government motion for the Adjournment (debate on Welfare to Work), 19.12.98

Third Report, 1997-98, Tax and Benefits: Pre-Budget Report, debate on the Budget Resolutions,17,18,19, and 23.3.98  

Fourth Report, 1997-98, Disability Living Allowance, on a Government motion for the Adjournment of the House on a Wednesday morning, under Standing Order No. 10(4), 17.6.98  

Evidence

Oral evidence was taken at 33 of the Committee's 51 meetings. On 1 of these occasions evidence was taken partly or wholly in private. The Committee received 304 memoranda, of which 34 came from Government departments and 10 from associated public bodies. The Committee published 124 memoranda.

Inquiry	No. of oral evidence sessions	No. of memoranda received	No. of memoranda received from Government departments/ executive agencies/ associated public bodies	No. of memoranda published	No. of memoranda made available in the Record Office for public use and placed in the Library
Tax and Benefits: An Interim Report	3	47	1/0/0	34	0
Tax and Benefits: Pre-Budget Report	6	35	0/0/0	11	9
Tax and Benefits: Implementation of Tax Credits	4	30	3/0/0	19	9
Disability Living Allowance	4	35	7/0/10	22	1
Pensions on Divorce	8	59	10/0/0	31	5
Child Benefit Fraud	1	19	1/0/0	1	0
Child Support	1	3	1/0/0	1	0
Pensions	1	13	0/0/0	1	0
Success Measures	2	47	1/0/0	2	0
Departmental Report and Green Paper	1	1	1/0/0	1	0
Active Modern Service	1	1	0/0/0	0	0
Other	0	14	9/0/0	1	1
Total	33	304	34/0/10	124	25