asked the Minister of Pensions if he will make a statement on the progress of appeals made to the Arbitration Tribunals; and whether the administrative work involved in these appeals is carried out by the same persons who have previously supported the decisions appealed against or by a special staff.

Approximately 12,600 applications have been received. Nearly 3,400 have been reviewed depart-mentally of which 500 have been allowed. About 120 cases have been sent to the Special Review Tribunal and, in a further 130 cases, a statement of case has been sent to the applicant. A special section has been set up within my Department to deal with applications.

What does the right hon. Gentleman mean by "reviewed departmentally"? Does it mean that an effort has been made in these cases to get them an extra review?

This special tribunal was set up to deal with approximately the cases that had been reviewed before August last, but before they go to the tribunal we review them ourselves in our Department to see if we can do anything about them there.