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Mr. Jon Owen Jones : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement on the importation of tropical hardwoods.
Mr. Needham : Except as provided for under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, there are no restrictions on the import of tropical hardwoods into the United Kingdom. The Government pursue a coherent policy to encourage sustainable management of tropical forests and do not consider that any wider restrictions on timber imports are practicable or desirable.
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EC Single Market
Mr. Dafis : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make it his policy to call for the establishment of new mechanisms to monitor reports on the trade diversion effects of the single market on poorer developing countries during the United Kingdom's presidency of the EC.
Mr. Needham : No. The Government do not consider that completion of the single market will have the effect of diverting trade away from developing countries. Removal of internal barriers within the European Community will make it easier for all traders, including developing country exporters, to do business throughout the Community. The trade policy review mechanism--TPRM--of the general agreement on tariffs and trade already provides a forum in which the effects of contracting parties' trade policies and practices on other countries and on the multilateral trading system as a whole can be examined in detail. The Community's trade policy is subject to biennial review under the TPRM.
Ozone Depletion
Mr. Chris Smith : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what trade restrictions on goods made with or containing ozone-depleting substances exist with European Free Trade Association countries.
Mr. Needham : The United Kingdom does not impose any controls on trade in these products with EFTA countries. However, all EFTA countries except Switzerland have notified the EC of their intention to introduce bans on the use of these products and these will equally apply to imports from other countries.
Company Accounts
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the President of the Board of Trade in what circumstances his Department takes action when a company's accounts are qualified by auditors.
Mr. Neil Hamilton : Auditors' reports on companies' accounts may be qualified for various reasons, and such qualifications do not necessarily imply financial difficulty or breaches of the law. Routine consideration of every qualified report would require resources that we do not believe could be justified. However my Department considers for appropriate action any case where a qualification is drawn to its attention as indicating a matter for concern.
Aerospace Industry
Mrs. Ann Winterton : To ask the President of the Board of Trade (1) what plans he has to meet the chairmen of the major aerospace companies ;
(2) what plans he has to meet the employees of major aerospace companies, their trade union and professional association representatives.
Mr. Sainsbury : My right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade has no immediate plans to meet the employees or professional association representatives of the major aerospace companies. However, he and I have visited a number of companies and we have had meetings with the Society of British Aerospace Companies and with the chairmen of several companies including British Aerospace, GEC, Rolls-Royce and Westland.
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Textiles
Mr. Cryer : To ask the President of the Board of Trade (1) what representations he has received from the textile industry about the effect of subsidies by the Wallonian region to textile companies in Belgium ; and if he will make a statement ;
(2) what assessment he has made of the uniformity of a common policy in the European Community on control of state aids to the textile and clothing industry.
Mr. Sainsbury [holding answer 4 November 1992] : Representations have been made by the British Textile Confederation about alleged subsidies. We are considering these allegations carefully. There continue to be isolated cases of aid approved to manufacturers in the textile and clothing industries on which we make our concerns known to the Commission. In general, progress appears to be being made in the enforcement of the EC treaty obligations controlling and limiting state aid.
Arms Exports
Dr. David Clark : To ask the President of the Board of Trade how many licences were (a) applied for and (b) granted under the export control system for arms exports in 1991 and to date in 1992.
Mr. Needham [holding answer 9 November 1992] : The following figures are in respect of export licences for goods covered by group 1 of part II of the Export of Goods (Control) Order 1991 :
|1991 |1992
-----------------------------------------------------
(a) Export licences applied for |13,832|12,907
(b) Export licences issued |13,216|12,005
Coal Uses
Mr. Gallie : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what publicly-funded bodies are currently carrying out research, within the United Kingdom, into alternative uses for coal.
Mr. Eggar : Research into alternative uses of coal funded by the public sector in the United Kingdom is mainly undertaken at British Coal's coal research establishment--CRE--near Cheltenham and at its Point of Ayr coal liquefaction pilot plant, north Wales. Work in recent years has focused principally on coal liquefaction, the production of chemicals from coal by prrolysis, coal gasification and carbonisation undertaken at CRE. Both British Coal and my Department are contributing to the £41 million Point of Ayr project with additional public sector funding from the European Commission. Elsewhere in the United Kingdom, research into alternative uses of coal is undertaken at a number of universities with funding from the British Coal Utilisation Research Association, Science and Engineering Research Council and the European Commission. A substantial amount of research into alternative uses of coal has also been undertaken by the private sector in the United Kingdom with European Commission funding over the past few years. This includes work by British Gas on producing a synthetic natural gas from coal and work by British Steel on coal carbonisation.
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SOCIAL SECURITY
Disability Living Allowance
Mrs. Bridget Prentice : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) what are the actual clearance times on average for disability living allowance claims ; and what is the proposed target for new claims and for reviews of earlier claims ;
(2) on how many claims for disability living allowance the adjudication officer decided to send an examining doctor to the claimant's home rather than a home visit officer ;
(3) what percentage of new claims for disability living allowances are successful ; what percentage of successful claimants received each component of the benefit ; and what percentage of unsuccessful claims are followed by an application for a review ;
(4) what is the current backlog for reviews of disability living allowance claims.
Mr. Scott : The administration of disability living allowance is a matter for Mr. Michael Bichard, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member and a copy will be placed in the Library.
Letter from M. Bichard to Mrs. Bridget Prentice, dated 10 November 1992 :
As Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency, it is my responsibility to answer questions about relevant operational matters. I am therefore replying to the points raised in your recent Parliamentary Questions to the Secretary of State for Social Security about claims and reviews for Disability Living Allowance (DLA), their outcome and the types of evidence used in the adjudication officers decisions. I will deal with each of your points in turn.
National clearance times
The Benefits Agency introduced a standard performance measure across benefits some time ago. This is expressed in terms of clearance targets rather than average clearance times as was previously the case.
The primary target set for the clearance of DLA claims is 60 per cent. of claims to be cleared in 30 days. Since the launch of DLA in February 1992 the performance to date has been 33 per cent. of claims cleared in 30 days. The latest performance for the month of October shows 39 per cent. of claims cleared in 30 days.
The success of the advertising campaign and the policy initiatives surrounding the launch of the benefits attracted a much larger number of applications in the early stages than was expected. Backlogs of work arose as a result and this has undoubtedly affected our ability to meet the clearance targets.
I can assure you, however, that whilst we are still some way from meeting the target, firm actions have been taken to reduce the backlog and thereby significantly improve the clearance times. Extra staff have been deployed and overtime is being worked to a considerable extent. We are also reviewing our working practices to ensure the most efficient procedures are in place consistent with our customers' needs. These measures have already borne fruit with the number of claims being cleared rising steadily from approximately 15, 600 in April to 57,700 in October.
Reviews
You asked about the target times for reviews of claims to DLA. This is also expressed in the same way as new claims but the primary target for these cases is 60 per cent. in 55 days.
You also asked about the current backlog for reviews of DLA claims. At the end of October 1992 there were 25,085 applications for review still to be cleared. The number of applications for review has been steadily rising as the recovery programme to clear the backlog of new claims has been successfully completed.
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The build-up of these reviews has also been affected by the diversion of resources to clear those outstanding Attendance Allowance and Mobility Allowance review and appeal cases inherited at 6 April 1992 when DLA was introduced. I am confident that these inherited cases will be cleared by the end of December 1992, as mentioned in my letter of 19 October 1992 to all MPs, and further resources are now being diverted to tackle the DLA reviews. Number of claims adjudicated upon after a medical examination has been requested.From February to the end of October just under 270,000 decisions have been made on new claims to DLA, of these nearly 160,000 decisions were made to award DLA, with almost 110,000 rejections. Over 54,400 decisions, representing 22 per cent., were made based on evidence obtained by way of a medical examination and over 400 decisions, less than 1 per cent., were made using information obtained by a home visit officer.
Numbers and percentages of successful claims
During the period February to October there were around 342,000 new claims to DLA, of these nearly 160,000 were awarded, this is reflected as a success rate of 59 per cent. The table below shows a breakdown by each component and rate :
Rate |Number |As a percentage of
|successful claims
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Higher rate care |5,300 |3
Middle rate care |7,900 |5
Lower rate care |15,700 |10
Higher rate mobility |45,600 |29
Lower rate mobility |11,300 |7
Higher rate care plus higher rate |18,300 |11
mobility
Higher rate care plus lower rate |3,700 |2
mobility
Middle rate care plus higher rate |10,200 |6
mobility
Middle rate care plus lower rate |9,100 |6
mobility
Lower rate care plus higher rate |16,800 |10
mobility
Lower rate care plus lower rate |15,900 |10
I should explain that it is not possible to identify the number of review applications received following a decision to reject a claim to DLA as customers may ask for a review on any decision whether it is favourable or not. However, the total number of review applications received between February and October was 29,664 which is less than 10 per cent. of the total number of decisions made during the same period.
All figures quoted are provisional and may be subject to amendment.
I hope you find this reply helpful. A copy of this reply will appear in the Official Report. Copies are also being placed in the Library.
Mrs. Bridget Prentice : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) how many people have used the benefit inquiry line or his Department's local offices for help in completing the application form for disability living allowance ; and what percentage of total claims are dealt with in this way ;
(2) how many claimants have requested home visits for help in completing the disability living allowance form ; what percentage of total claims this represents ; and, of those requesting such visits, how many claimants were visited by his Department's officers.
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Mr. Scott : The administration of disability living allowance is a matter for Mr. Michael Bichard, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member and a copy will be placed in the Library.
Letter from M. Bichard to Mrs. Bridget Prentice, dated 10 November 1992 :
As Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency, it is my responsibility to answer questions about relevant operational matters. I am therefore replying to the points raised in your recent Parliamentary Questions to the Secretary of State for Social Security about how many customers have requested home visits for help in completing the Disability Living Allowance (DLA) claim form, what percentage of total claims this represents and how many visits were actually made. You also asked how many people have used the Benefit Enquiry Line or his Department's local offices for help in completing DLA forms and what percentage of total claims are dealt with in this way. Information is not available on the number of requests made for visits. However, since the launch of DLA in February 1992 to the end of October approximately 1,950 home visits had been made by the Customer Service staff in the Disability Benefit Centres. In this same period over 51,000 claims were completed with the assistance of telephone calls from Benefits Agency staff, which represents approximately 15 per cent. of the total of 342,000 new claims received.
I hope you find this reply helpful. A copy of this reply will appear in the Official Report. Copies are also being placed in the Library.
Mrs. Bridget Prentice : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security at what intervals claimants are advised on the progress of their claims or reviews for disability living allowance.
Mr. Scott : The administration of disability living allowance is a matter for Mr. Michael Bichard, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member and a copy will be placed in the Library.
Letter from M. Bichard to Mrs. Bridget Prentice, dated 10 November 1992 :
As Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency, it is my responsibility to answer questions about relevant operational matters. I am therefore replying to the points raised in your recent Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security asking at what intervals claimants are advised on the progress of their claims or reviews for Disability Living Allowance (DLA).
New claims to DLA are administered by 10 Disability Benefit Centres (DBCs) around the country. When a new claim is registered on the computer system an acknowledgment is automatically issued. The claim is then referred to an adjudication officer who may decide that further information is required and if this is the case then the customer will be informed. If the claim has not been cleared after 35 days then the computer system issues a letter automatically informing the customer of the delay.
I should explain that the volume of claims received has resulted in much longer delays in clearance and unfortunately we have been unable to keep customers fully informed of the progress of their claim in the latter stages. However now that the recovery programme to clear the backlog of claims has been successfully completed, clearance of claims will be accelerated and extended delays should not normally occur.
In the case of reviews, which are dealt with at the DLA Unit in Blackpool, due to the volume of work currently on hand customers have not been kept fully informed of the progress of their case. Action is being taken to address the outstanding review cases and staff will be keeping customers informed of any further delays which might arise when they action those cases.
I hope you find this reply helpful. A copy of this reply will appear in the Official Report. Copies are also being placed in the Library.
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Fraud
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what are the total number of cases of social security fraud detected in each of the last three years ; and how many of these have resulted in prosecutions.
Miss Widdecombe : The investigation of social security fraud is a matter for Mr. Michael Bichard, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member with such information as is available and a copy will be placed in the Library.
Letter from M. Bichard to Mr. Graham Allen, dated 10 November 1992 :
As Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency, it is my responsibility to answer questions about relevant operational matters. I am therefore replying to the points raised in your recent Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security asking for the total number of cases of social security fraud detected in each of the last three years ; and how many of these have resulted in prosecutions.
The number of cases which have resulted in a weekly benefit saving and those that have resulted in prosecutions for the years 1989-90, 1990-91 and 1991-92, are given below. I should explain that a weekly benefit saving is where benefit is reduced or terminated as a result of the work of fraud staff.
|Weekly benefit |Prosecution cases
|saving cases
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1989-90 |159,372 |8,671
1990-91 |158,178 |7,911
1991-92 |181,870 |4,379
I hope you find this reply helpful. A copy of this reply will appear in the Official Report. Copies of this letter are being placed in the Library.
Cold Weather Payments
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many households in the Doncaster area currently qualify for payments under the cold weather payments scheme ; what percentage this is of the total number of households eligible to claim benefits from his Department ; and what have been the comparative figures for each year since the scheme was introduced.
Mr. Scott : The administration of the social fund is a matter for Mr. Michael Bichard, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member with such information as is available and a copy will be placed in the Library.
Letter from M. Bichard to Mr. Martin Redmond, dated 10 November 1992 :
As Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency, it is my responsibility to answer questions about relevant operational matters. I am therefore replying to the points raised in your recent Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security asking how many households in the Doncaster area qualify for payments under the cold weather payments scheme ; what percentage this is of the total number of households eligible to claim benefits from his Department ; and what have been the comparative figures for each year since the scheme was introduced.
Doncaster is covered by the Agency's Doncaster District. It is not possible to give an exact figure of how many customers would qualify for a Cold Weather Payment except at disproportionate cost. However, based on figures for those claiming Income Support in August 1992, it is estimated that approximately 18,900 customers in the Doncaster District may qualify for a Cold Weather Payment, should the area be triggered. This represents approximately 50 per cent. of Income Support Customers.
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The only period available for comparison is 1 November 1991 to 31 March 1992, when up to 12,820 (approximately 47 per cent. of Income Support customers) were paid during the four periods when the area was triggered. All other local statistics have been destroyed in accordance with standing instructions.I hope you find this reply helpful. A copy of this reply will appear in the Official Report. Copies are also being placed in the Library.
Medical Examinations
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list by month since January for the Doncaster area, how many claims for (a) invalidity benefit, (b) sickness benefit, (c) severe disablement allowance and (d) income support were referred to the regional medical services ; how many of these cases resulted in medical examinations ; and what was the outcome (i) where examination took place and (ii) where they did not.
Mr. Scott : The administration of benefits is a matter for Mr. Michael Bichard, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member with such information as is available and a copy will be placed in the Library.
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Letter from Mr. Bichard to Mr. Martin Redmond, dated 10 November 1992 :As Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency, it is my responsibility to answer questions about relevant operational matters. I am therefore replying to the points raised in your recent Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security asking by month since January for the Doncaster area, how many claims for (a) invalidity benefit, (b) sickness benefit (c) severe disablement allowance and (d) income support were referred to the regional medical services ; how many of these cases resulted in medical examinations ; and what was the outcome (i) where examinations took place and (ii) where they did not.
The complete range of such information is not available except at disproportionate cost. This is because statistics covering decisions made following references to the Benefits Agency Medical Services are not available in the requested form.
Listed in the annex are the figures available for Invalidity Benefit, Sickness Benefit and Severe Disablement Allowance. There have been no references directly from Income Support sections but customers in receipt of the incapacity benefits which I have mentioned may also be in receipt of Income Support.
The above information covers customers of the Agency's Doncaster East, Doncaster West and Mexborough offices.
I hope you find this reply helpful. A copy of this reply will appear in the Official Report. Copies are also being placed in the Library.
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Annex
|c|Number of cases referred to BA medical services: From Doncaster area by benefit type|c|
1992 year to date |Invalidity benefit |Sickness benefit |Severe disablement |Not in receipt of an|Total referred
|allowance |incapacity
|benefit<1>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January |438 |172 |17 |81 |708
February |486 |191 |9 |97 |783
March |504 |162 |12 |103 |781
April |466 |193 |10 |85 |754
May |619 |199 |19 |128 |965
June |575 |164 |17 |109 |865
July |545 |224 |15 |79 |863
August |527 |168 |12 |86 |793
September |541 |208 |14 |58 |821
October |574 |194 |4 |46 |818
The results of the above references received to date are:
Incapable of all work 5,545
Capable of work 218
Incapable of normal occupation but capable of work within certain limits 471
Did not attend 263
<1>Included in this column are customers who do not receive a National Insurance Incapacity Benefit but may qualify for Income Support based on
incapacity for work.
Community Care Grants
Mrs. Helen Jackson : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many DSS offices in each region had, halfway through the year, exhausted their funding provision for community care grants (a) for children, (b) for the elderly and (c) for the disabled.
Mr. Scott : The administration of the social fund is a matter for Mr. Michael Bichard, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member and a copy will be placed in the Library.
Letter from M. Bichard to Mrs. Helen Jackson, dated 10 November 1992 :
As Chief Executive of the Benefits Agency, it is my responsibility to answer questions about relevant operational matters. I am therefore replying to the points raised in your recent Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about community care grant funding in DSS offices.
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Annual allocations are made to each Benefits Agency District for community care grants. No District has exhausted its grants allocation for 1992-93.I hope you find this reply helpful. A copy of this reply will appear in the Official Report. Copies are also being placed in the Library.
Incomes
Ms. Corston : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what statistical information about low incomes it is his practice to give, other than that provided in the households below average income stocktaking report.
Mr. Burt : It is the practice of this Department to give such information as is available within cost constraints. This may be by reference to any published data or from other information collected by the Department.
All statistical information from HBAI data is presented in line with the recommendations of the stocktaking report.
Ms. Corston : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security for what reasons 1988 and 1989 data in the
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households below average income stocktaking report were combined, but not data for any two of the previous years covered in the report ; and if for future years he will ensure that trend data are consistent, whether for individual years or two years combined.Mr. Burt : Data for 1988 and 1989 are combined in the most recent edition of the households below average income statistics in order to reduce the effect of sampling error. This change in methodology was discussed in the HBAI stocktaking report, published in December 1991, and in appendix 5 of the latest edition. Earlier years were not combined since the effect of sampling error was much smaller : in fact the sampling error for 1988 and 1989 combined was larger than for 1979 alone.
There is no statistical inconsistency in comparing HBAI data for a single year's family expenditure survey with HBAI data based on two combined years' FES data. Future HBAI figures will remain based on combined years post-1988.
Wages Councils
Mr. Dewar : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what estimate he has made of the change in his Department's spending, on family credit and other benefits, of the proposed abolition of wages councils.
Mr. Burt : It is not possible to predict the effects of the abolition of wages councils on benefit expenditure. In any case, variations in the level of wages are not the major determinant of family credit expenditure.
War Pensions
Mr. Frank Field : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many applications for war pensions were not determined before the applicant's death in each year over the last 10 years ; how many applicants died before they received their benefit and arrears ; and how long before the death each application had been made.
Miss Widdecombe : This information is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
WALES
Health Service
Mr. Morgan : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales (1) when he last reviewed the relevance and appropriateness of the criteria for selecting people for the boards of Welsh health authorities in accordance with the procedure in paragraph 52 of "Guidelines of Procedure for Ministers" ;
(2) what steps he took to solicit suggestions of names for membership of the boards of Welsh health authorities, prior to the announcement of the names appointed by him to those authorities on 30 October, pursuant to the recommendations of paragraph 52 in "Guidelines of Procedure for Ministers" ; and what consultations he undertook.
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