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SOCIAL SECURITY
Chief Adjudication Officer (Report)
Mr. Hinchliffe : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what action he is taking in response to the recommendations contained in the annual report of the chief adjudication officer, 1987-88.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : The recommendations contained in the annual report of the chief adjudication officer, 1987-88 are currently being considered and the responses will be published in the next annual report as is the normal practice.
Attendance Allowance
Ms. Abbott : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many claims for attendance allowance there were in each of the last five years ; how many of these claims were (a) unsuccessful, (b) awarded the lower rate and (c) awarded the higher rate ; how many of the successful claims (i) satisfied the attendance conditions and (ii) satisfied the supervision conditions ; and how many of the unsuccessful claims were applied for on grounds of meeting the supervision conditions.
Mr. Scott : Not all the requested information is available : the information which is available is in the table.
|c|Attendance Allowance|c|
|c|Initial Claims 1984-1988|c|
|c|Numbers Received and Decided, Disallowed and Awards Made|c|
Year Claims Claims Awards made
|received |disallowed |Higher rate|Lower rate
|and decided
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1988 |318,600 |110,527 |74,058 |133,795
1987 |300,581 |91,888 |78,338 |130,355
1986 |250,561 |76,497 |61,457 |112,607
1985 |255,125 |70,526 |66,218 |118,381
1984 |239,804 |57,430 |67,445 |114,325
Ms. Primarolo : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he has completed his review of the introduction of attendance allowance for severely mentally and physically disabled children under the age of two years.
Mr. Scott : I refer the hon. Member to my reply to the hon. Member for Islington, North (Mr. Corbyn) on 22 February at column 682.
Poverty"
Mr. Battle : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is his policy with regard to the use of the word "poverty" in official governmental reports.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : It is our policy that, in reports prepared by the Department, the word "poverty" should be used whenever it is the appropriate word.
Supplementary Benefit
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will publish a table using regional classification to show expenditure in 1988-89 on supplementary benefit payments for occupants of (a) private residential homes and (b) hostels.
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Mr. Peter Lloyd : The table shows the estimated expenditure on payments of income support to people in private and voluntary residential care homes. I regret that reliable figures for hostel cases are not available.
Social security region |Annual equivalent
|expenditure (nearest £
|million)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
North Eastern |64
London North |78
London South |125
Wales/South West |99
Midlands |73
North Western |76
Scotland |39
|--
Great Britain |555
Source: August 1988 Quarterly Statistical Enquiry.
Vaccine Damage Payments
Mr. Ashley : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many vaccine damage payments were made in 1987 ; and if he will categorise these according to the age of the child, when the vaccination took place, the year of the vaccination and the nature of the vaccination.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : Ten payments were awarded in 1987 under the provisions of the Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979. Details are in the table.
|c|Vaccine damage payments scheme awards made in 1987 by age of|c| |c|child at date of vaccination; year of vaccination and type of|c| |c|vaccination|c| Age at date of |Year vaccine was given |Type of vaccination cited vaccination (months) |on the claim form -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 3-6 |1981 |Triple 2 3-6 |1983 |Pertussis 3 3-6 |1979 |Triple/polio 4 3-6 |1984 |Triple/polio 5 6-9 |1978 |Pertussis 6 3-6 |1985 |Polio 7 3-6 |1982 |Triple/polio 8 3-6 |1984 |Pertussis 9 6-9 |1985 |Triple/polio 10 3-6 |1983 |Triple/polio
Occupational Pensions
Mr. Favell : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will provide figures indicating the proportion of people of pensionable age in receipt of inflation-proofed occupational pensions in the following age bands (a) 60 to 65 years, (b) 65 to 70 years, (c) 70 to 75 years, (d) 75 to 80 years, (e) 80 to 85 years and (f) 85 years and over.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : I regret that the information requested is not available.
National Insurance
Mr. Gordon Brown : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will estimate the national insurance contributions yield in 1989-90 and the first full year of the proposed reformed system for those workers at or below (a) 25 per cent. average earnings, (b) 33 per cent. average earnings, (c) 50 per cent. average earnings, (d) average earnings, (e) twice average earnings, (f) five times average earnings, (g) 10 times average earnings, and (h) £150 per week.
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Mr. Peter Lloyd [holding answer 7 April 1989] : The information is as follows :
|c|Estimated yield: Class 1 primary national insurance contributions|c|
£ billions
Earnings at or below |1989-90 |1990-91
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(a) 25 per cent. average earnings |0.1 |0.1
(b) 33 per cent. average earnings |0.3 |0.3
(c) 50 per cent. average earnings |1.0 |1.0
(d) average earnings |6.5 |6.2
(e) twice average earnings |12.8 |12.5
(f) (g) three times average earnings |13.4 |13.1
(h) £150 per week |2.2 |1.7
All earners |13.7 |13.4
The Government Actuary's Department has supplied the estimate of the yield from national insurance contributions. Average earnings are those of all full-time male and female employees. Insufficient information is available to enable the yield from people earning five and 10 times the average to be calculated, and the table, therefore, includes figures based on earnings of three times average earnings and of all earners instead. All figures are rounded.
Disabled People and Deaf People
Mr. Kirkwood : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what was the amount of money given under section 64 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968 to (a) all organisations working with and for disabled people and (b) all organisations working with and for deaf people, for each year from 1980 to the latest available date.
Mr. Freeman [holding answer 13 April 1989] : I have been asked to reply.
The following table, which relates to England only, gives as close an estimate as possible of the amounts given in each of the financial years 1979-80 to 1988-89 under the section 64 general scheme to (a) organisations working exclusively or primarily with or for physically disabled and sensorily impaired people ; and (b) organisations working with or for deaf and hearing-impaired people. These totals do not include grants paid to some organisations concerned with specific medical conditions or organisations working primarily with mentally handicapped or mentally ill people, even though some of these also work with physically disabled people. Also excluded are the awards recently made following the error in calculating the retail prices index. During the period specified by the hon. Member, grants paid under the section 64 general scheme to organisations working with physically disabled and/or sensorily impaired people totalled approximately £20.2 million. Of that, approximately £2.03 million was awarded to organisations working with or for deaf or hearing impaired people.
|Total disabled |Deaf/hearing impaired
|£ |£
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1979-80 |1,058,457 |54,060
1980-81 |1,641,283 |155,420
1981-82 |<1>2,031,507 |158,600
1982-83 |1,837,190 |173,333
1983-84 |2,129,394 |289,500
1984-85 |2,153,267 |193,054
1985-86 |2,339,083 |241,950
1986-87 |2,535,750 |232,000
1987-88 |2,528,043 |256,300
1988-89 |<2>1,975,965 |273,944
ENERGY
Margam Pit
Mr. John Morris : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy when he now anticipates that a start will be made on the Margam pit.
Mr. Michael Spicer : The timing and priority of major projects is a matter for British coal, which keeps its capital expenditure programme under regular review. In the case of Margam, the timing will depend on the successful conclusion of a detailed agreement on six-day working and an up- to-date assessment of the project's commercial prospects.
EMPLOYMENT
Construction Industry (Accidents)
14. Mr. Jack Thompson : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment whether he will estimate the number of accidents that go unreported in the construction industry.
95. Mr. Bradley : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment whether he will estimate the number of accidents that go unreported in the construction industry.
Mr. Nicholls : All cases of fatal injury in the course of work activity are reported to the enforcement authorities. It is not known what proportion of other reportable injuries to people employed in construction go unreported, but it is thought to be significantly more than 50 per cent.
63. Dr. Reid : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what were the fatal and major injury rates in construction industries in 1974, 1978 and 1988.
128. Ms. Quin : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what were the fatal and major injury rates in construction industries in 1974, 1978 and 1988.
Mr. Nicholls : The available information for employees is shown in the table. More than one third of the people employed in the industry are classified as self-employed. Prior to 1981, injuries to the self-employed were not reportable and under current regulations they are not reportable for self-employed people working on their own. Figures for the self- employed are therefore not included in the table, but the provisional 1987- 88 figure for the number of employees and self-employed killed in the course of construction activity was 141.
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|c|Injury rates per 100,000 employees in the construction industry<1>|c|
|Fatal Injuries |<2>Major Injuries |<3>All reported Injuries
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1974 |13.6 |n/a |2,830
1978 |10.4 |n/a |2,976
<4>1987-8 |10.1 |206.6 |1,914
<1> Defined as Order 20 of the 1968 Standard Industrial Classification in 1974 and 1978 and Division 5 of the 1980 SIC in
1987-88.
<2> The classification of injuries as major was first introduced in 1981.
<3> Includes all reported injuries causing more than three days' absence from work. Comparisons between years may be
affected by variable under-reporting of non-fatal injuries.
<4> Provisional.
n/a Not available.
Factory Inspectors
16. Mr. Heffer : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many factory inspectors have left the Health and Safety Executive in the last 12 months ; and how many were retirements and how many resignations.
Mr. Nicholls : Of the 39 factory inspectors who left the Health and Safety Executive between 31 March 1988 and 1 April 1989, eight retired and 27 resigned. A further four transferred to other Government Departments.
33. Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many factory inspectors were conducting preventive inspections on the following dates : 6 June 1988, 7 September 1988 and 23 January 1989.
Mr. Nicholls : Factory inspectors in the Health and Safety Executive's area offices are not employed solely on preventive inspection but also make visits in response to accidents or other incidents, complaints, inquiries or to follow up previously identified shortcomings.
Staffing figures are recorded on the first of each month. The numbers of factory inspectors in area offices on 1 June 1988, 1 September 1988 and 1 February 1989 were 520, 522 and 533 respectively.
51. Mr. Madden : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many additional factory inspectors would be required to enable the percentage of reported accidents investigated to rise to 10 per cent.
Mr. Nicholls : Information is not available in the form requested. Health and Safety Executive plans are not expressed in terms of a fixed percentage of reported accidents to be investigated. The 1989-90 plans provide for some 10,800 investigations of incidents (including occupational diseases, and dangerous occurrences, as well as accidents) reported under the Reporting of Injuries, Industrial Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations. This compares with 9, 900 planned in 1988-89.
80. Mr. Bill Michie : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what was the total number of construction factory inspectors in post as at 1 April.
Mr. Nicholls : On 1 April 1989 there were 99.5 inspectors employed on the inspection of construction activities.
133. Mr. Ted Garrett : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what were the target numbers set for preventive inspections for factory inspectors in 1986, 1987 and 1988.
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Mr. Nicholls : The Health and Safety Executive's Factory Inspectorate does not set target numbers for preventive inspections and therefore the information requested is not available.
134. Mr. Fraser : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what was the number of factory inspectors in post in 1979, 1987 and 1989 on 1 April.
Mr. Nicholls : On 1 April 1979, 1987 and 1989 the Health and Safety Executive employed 742.5, 621.5 and 604 factory inspectors respectively.
Early Retirement
19. Mr. Brazier : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what steps he is taking to encourage mature experienced workers to remain in their jobs and not take early retirement ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Nicholls : The Government believe that the age at which a person retires is a matter to be settled between the individual and the employer. As the numbers of young people decline, it will increasingly be in employers' interests to make full use of the contribution which mature, experienced workers can make, and the Government are using a range of media to put this message across.
Compact Initiative
20. Dr. Goodson-Wickes : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many schools are currently taking part in the compact initiative ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Cope : The Training Agency has received proposals for operational compacts in 28 inner city areas to date. These plans indicate that once the proposals are approved and begin operation in September a total of 260 schools in these areas will be covered. All compacts have plans to expand in subsequent years.
The quality of applications have been impressive and show what can be achieved when education and business work together to meet the needs of their locality.
YTS
21. Mr. David Martin : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what percentage of YTS trainees in 1986-87 gained a vocational qualification during their time on YTS ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Cope : The figure for the period 1986-87 relates to all qualifications, vocational qualifications cannot be separately identified. A total of 21 per cent. of young people who left during 1986-87 gained a qualification while on YTS.
Figures for the latest available period (two years up to October 1988) show that 65 per cent. of young people completing YTS gained a qualification.
Employment Ministers
22. Mr. Ground : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he has any plans to meet the Employment Ministers of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries to discuss levels of employment ; and if he will make a statement.
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Mr. Lee : There are no current plans for joint meetings with Ministers from other member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co- operation and Development.
Levels of employment in the United Kingdom compare very favourably with those of other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. In the United Kingdom, a greater proportion of the population is in employment than is the case in our major European competitors and in many other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. This is partly the result of the rapid employment growth we have enjoyed since 1983.
28. Mr. Hanley : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he has any plans to meet the Employment Ministers of the United Kingdom's European Community partners to discuss levels of unemployment ; and if he will make a statement.
48. Mr. Rowe : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he proposes to meet the Employment Ministers of the European Community to discuss the social proposals of the European Final Act ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Cope : I refer my hon. Friends to my statement on the last European Community Social Affairs Council, which appeared in the Official Report on 12 April 1989 at column 588. The next meeting of Labour and Social Affairs Ministers will be on 12 June at a meeting of the Labour and Social Affairs Council. The United Kingdom will continue its efforts to ensure that training and employment growth are Community priorities. In the meantime, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and I are continuing our programme of bilateral contacts with members states.
New Businesses
24. Mr. Norris : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many businesses were started during the last 12 months ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Cope : In 1987, the latest year for which figures have been published, the estimated number of new registrations for value-added tax was 205,000. The net increase in the number of VAT-registered businesses in 1987 was 45,000, or nearly 900 a week on average. The indications are that the rate of increase during 1988 has been faster.
Small Businesses (Advice)
25. Mrs. Gillian Shephard : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement on his plans for co-operation between enterprise agencies and training and enterprise councils for the delivery of advice to small businesses.
Mr. Cope : Support for new and expanding businesses will be a key responsibility for training and enterprise councils. They will assess what advice and other services are needed in their area and will seek to develop a coherent high quality system of support through local enterprise agencies and others who already contribute to the aim of assisting small business growth.
Training and Enterprise Councils
26. Mr. Gerald Howarth : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he has any plans to meet the
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Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry to discuss the introduction of training and enterprise councils.Mr. Fowler : I have no immediate plans to meet the Director-General of the CBI. The CBI has strongly supported our proposals to introduce training and enterprise councils and I look forward to its continued involvement as the initiative develops.
49. Mr. Jack : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many representations he has received on the introduction of training and enterprise councils.
73. Mr. Watts : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what progress is being made on establishing training and enterprise councils ; and if he will make a statement.
91. Mr. Riddick : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what representations he has received from industry and commerce in response to his plans to set up training and enterprise councils ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Cope : I published a prospectus on 10 March inviting employers to form training and enterprise councils. The response from employers has been excellent ; almost 4,000 individuals and organisations have expressed an interest.
93. Mr. Matthew Taylor : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement about the number of employers likely to be involved with the training and business programmes which will be organised by the training and enterprise councils.
Mr. Cope : Training and enterprise councils will ensure that a greater number of employers are involved with training and enterprise activities at a local level. One of the major tasks of TECs will be to encourage employers to invest in training and developing their own staff as well as supporting the training and business programmes of the TEC. I published a prospectus on 10 March inviting employers to form TECs. Response has been excellent and there is already considerable interest throughout the country.
Mines (Occupational Health Services)
27. Mr. McKelvey : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement on the levels of occupational health services provided by British Coal under the requirements of the Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act 1946 and by private sector employers in mines and quarries.
Mr. Nicholls : The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 replaced earlier legislative requirements relating to provision of occupational health services. There are no specific requirements as to how this should be implemented by employers in the mining and quarrying industries. However, British Coal provides an extensive range of services and employ over 600 qualified staff to operate them. Full details of this are published in the annual report of the British Coal medical service. No such detailed information is available for non-British Coal mines or for quarries.
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Small Firms Service
30. Mr. Kirkhope : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what proposals he has for the future of the small firms service following the creation of training and enterprise councils ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Cope : The small firms service now forms part of the Training Agency. This brings together the closely linked services of counselling and training, and will lead to a more coherent and effective approach to small business support.
The training and enterprise councils will become responsible for the counselling activity of the SFS. This will help ensure that TECs become the natural focus for the local small business support network.
The SFS will maintain its counselling service in each area covered now until a TEC is established. The SFS information service will remain as a national service.
Employment Training
32. Mr. Jacques Arnold : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many people currently in training on the employment training programme had previously been unemployed for two years or more ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Nicholls : Figures for those currently in training on employment training who were previously unemployed for two years or more are not available. However, of the 239,000 entrants to the programme by 31 March, it is estimated that some 38 per cent. or 91, 000 had been unemployed for two years or more. This is an outstanding achievement as the programme is specially aimed at the longer-term unemployed.
85. Mrs. Maureen Hicks : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many local authorities have supported employment training ; and how many have opposed it.
Mr. Nicholls : As at 28 February 1989, a total of 263 local authorities were participating in employment training as training agents or training managers. There is no record held centrally by the Training Agency on the number of local authorities which have decided not to participate.
90. Mr. Simon Coombs : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many people are currently undertaking training on employment training ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Nicholls : By 31 March there were over 175,000 people in training. They clearly recognise the benefits the programme has to offer and the opportunity it provides to help them get a job.
Tourism
35. Mr. Atkinson : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement about the future of section 4 grants for tourism.
Mr. Lee : The section 4 scheme of assistance is being considered as one of a range of issues arising from the review of tourism policy. An announcement about the outcome of that review of policy, including the future of the section 4 scheme, will be made in due course.
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114. Mr. Bevan : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement on the current capital investment in the hotel and tourism industry in the United Kingdom.
Mr. Lee : I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Bosworth (Mr. Tredinnick) on 14 March 1989, Official Report, column 195.
116. Mr. Amos : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what plans he has to promote industrial tourism in the north-east of England.
Mr. Lee : Every opportunity will be taken to promote the benefits of industrial tourism in all parts of the country including the north-east and I welcome the initiative of the Northumbria tourist board to encourage more companies to open their doors to visitors by organising a conference on industrial tourism on 19 June at the Nissan factory, Washington new town.
Benefit Fraud
36. Mr. Greg Knight : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is the latest figure for savings for 1988 as a result of investigations of fraudulent claims ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Lee : The net benefit saving from my Department's fraud investigation work during 1988 was £65 million.
101. Mr. Robert G. Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many people were prosecuted for benefit fraud offences as a result of investigations by unemployment benefit fraud officers between 1 April 1988 and 31 March 1989 ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Lee : As a result of investigations into benefit fraud offences, my Department prosecuted 3,981 people during the period from 1 April 1988 to 31 March 1989.
Competent Persons
37. Ms. Ruddock : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment whether he will meet the chair of the Health and Safety Commission to discuss the role of competent persons.
Mr. Nicholls : My right hon. Friend has no plans to do so. Many provisions in health and safety legislation require specified tasks to be carried out by competent persons. The Health and Safety Commission keeps these provisions under review. If the commission wishes to make proposals to my right hon. Friend which would affect the role of competent persons in any particular area, he will consider those proposals most carefully.
Pre-entry Closed Shop
39. Mr. Butler : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement on his proposals to reform the pre-entry closed shop.
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