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Executive Agencies

Mr. Redmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what action heads of his Department's executive agencies are taking to safeguard the provision of pre-retirement courses; and if he will make a statement. [9141]

Sir John Wheeler: Staff in agencies of the Northern Ireland Departments have access to the pre-retirement courses provided by the management development centre--MDC--of the Department of Finance and Personnel, which are supported by the chief executives and which are planned to continue for the foreseeable future.

Agencies of the Northern Ireland Office attend pre-retirement courses provided by its training and development branch; these courses are, and will continue to be, demand-led. Staff also have access to the pre-retirement courses provided by MDC.

Wind Farms

Mr. William Ross: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will publish a map showing all present and projected wind farms in Northern Ireland and all 33 kV electricity supply lines which are planned for construction within three miles of such sites over the next three years or as much information and for such periods as is available to him. [9124]

Mr. Ancram: A map showing the detailed information requested is not available. A drawing indicating the general location of present and projected wind farms and associated 33 kV lines has been placed in the Library. Northern Ireland Electricity plc has no firm plans to construct additional 33 kV lines within three miles of known wind farm sites.

Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty

Mr. William Ross: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what review he has carried out into the boundaries of areas of outstanding natural beauty in Northern Ireland; and when he expects to publish the results. [9123]

Mr. Moss: The Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland has been reviewing the boundaries of areas of outstanding natural beauty since the introduction of the Nature Conservation and Amenity Lands (Northern Ireland) Order 1985. This legislation gives AONBs a broader conservation objective than the Amenity Lands Act (Northern Ireland) 1965 under which nine AONBs were originally designated.

To date four AONBs have been reviewed and redesignated under the new legislation. In each case there

18 Jan 1996 : Column: 717

has been extensive public consultation both on the boundaries and on Government policies and proposals for each area. Presently a review of the Strangford Lough AONB is underway and the Department has commissioned a landscape assessment prior to commencing a review of the Sperrin and North Derry AONBs.

Local Government Finance

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what is the estimated level of Government financial support for each local authority, and for Northern Ireland as a whole in constant prices for (a) 1994-95, (b) 1995-96 and (c) 1996-97, indicating

18 Jan 1996 : Column: 718

the percentage yearly change in each case and the overall cumulative change (i) net of community care and (ii) including community care. [8888]

Mr. Moss [holding answer 17 January 1996]: It is not possible to provide the information exactly in the form requested, as the provision of community care in Northern Ireland is the responsibility of health and social services boards rather than local authorities. The chart shows the estimated level of the financial support paid by the Department of the Enviornment for Northern Ireland, by means of general Exchequer grant, to each of the 26 district councils in Northern Ireland. Other Northern Ireland Departments also make specific grants to district councils to assist both capital and revenue programmes relating to such matters as the arts, sports and tourism.

18 Jan 1996 : Column: 717

Table showing estimated level of Government financial support for each local authority and for Northern Ireland as a whole in constant prices (1995-96)

	1994-95	Percentage change	1995-96	Percentage change	1996-97	Overall
	£	1994-95 to 1995-96	£	1995-96 to 1996-97	£	cumulative change
Antrim	308,819	8.59	335,342	22.79	411,750	33.33
Ards	1,974,410	-4.39	1,887,808	-11.85	1,664,032	-15.72
Armagh	1,886,418	7.43	2,026,595	-13.69	1,749,221	-7.27
Ballymena	683,399	14.07	779,530	-2.09	763,263	11.69
Ballymoney	891,124	0.98	899,864	-11.07	800,286	-10.19
Banbridge	935,196	17.87	1,102,325	-9.86	993,668	6.25
Belfast	6,167,324	1.54	6,262,343	3.23	6,464,541	4.82
Carrickfergus	816,150	6.50	869,165	-54.86	392,366	-51.92
Castlereagh	1,067,963	-14.52	912,934	9.05	995,531	-6.78
Coleraine	416,318	2.09	425,025	6.17	451,233	8.39
Cookstown	957,895	7.68	1,031,469	8.26	1,116,623	-16.57
Craigavon	2,199,775	-4.60	2,098,505	-3.10	2,033,368	-7.56
Derry	3,636,801	-12.81	3,170,883	-16.99	2,632,202	-27.62
Down	2,162,254	1.21	2,188,385	-3.60	2,109,288	-2.45
Dungannon	1,619,829	-1.72	1,591,994	-4.52	1,519,996	-6.17
Fermanagh	1,909,876	-9.30	1,732,324	-7.19	1,607,803	-15.82
Larne	772,214	8.81	840,230	-28.56	600,302	-22.26
Limavady	992,078	7.87	1,070,145	-5.96	1,006,341	1.44
Lisburn	1,952,817	-20.06	1,561,015	-5.93	1,468,383	-24.81
Magherafelt	1,187,749	12.65	1,337,954	8.62	1,453,342	22.36
Moyle	575,179	-5.23	545,049	-5.26	516,362	-10.23
Newry and Mourne	3,858,546	-7.60	3,565,337	-8.73	3,253,968	-15.67
Newtownabbey	1,421,212	5.85	1,504,396	-8.95	1,369,712	-3.62
North Down	1,261,446	-30.23	880,261	-36.11	562,348	-55.42
Omagh	1,777,055	-2.91	1,828,841	-6.80	1,704,561	-4.08
Strabane	1,864,718	-1.97	1,827,997	-1.33	1,803,594	-3.28
Totals	43,296,565	-2.36	42,275,616	-6.70	39,444,054	-8.90

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18 Jan 1996 : Column: 717

SOCIAL SECURITY

Retirement Pensions

Mr. Redmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will consider making a substantial increase in the additional state retirement pension paid to pensioners over 80 years of age; and if he will make a statement. [9152]

Mr. Heald: We have no plans to uprate the 25p addition which is paid to all pensioners from the age of 80. The income support scheme also provides from that age a higher pensioner premium which is increased regularly.

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This premium, we believe, is of far more help to pensioners on low incomes, and a more effective use of resources, than increasing the existing 25p age addition for all pensioners aged 80 and over regardless of individual need.

Child Support Agency

Ms Lynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many employees have been dismissed from each Child Support Agency centre since its creation. [8119]

Mr. Andrew Mitchell: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive, Miss Ann Chant. She will write to the hon. Member.

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Letter from Ann Chant to Ms Liz Lynne, dated 16 January 1996:

I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about staff dismissed from Child Support Agency Centres.
Staff can be dismissed for a variety of reasons ranging from failure to meet the required performance standards during probation, through inefficiency and up to misconduct.
The figures for staff dismissed in each Child Support Agency Centre (CSAC) since its creation in April 1993 are as follows:

CSAC	Number of dismissals
Plymouth	16
Hastings	9
Birkenhead	5
Dudley	23
Falkirk	23




The figures do not include any information on staff dismissed within the Belfast CSAC. This is because staffing issues at this CSAC are the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Child Support Agency.

I hope this is helpful.

Ms Lynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what estimate he has made of the effect on maintenance collected to be set against public funds of taking on the Child Support Agency cases deferred in December 1994. [8140]

Mr. Mitchell: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive, Miss Ann Chant. She will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Ann Chant to Ms Liz Lynne, dated 16 January 1996:

I am replying to your recent Parliamentary Question about the effect on maintenance collected to be set against public funds of taking on the Child Support Agency cases deferred in December 1994.
As you are aware at that time the Agency deferred taking on an estimated 340,000 cases. The Secretary of State set the Agency a milestone target to commence the take on of these cases by the end of 1995. We started taking on the remaining cases in November last year, but in practice had already started to deal with many of them where the parent with care had asked us to do so.

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Until the absent parent's circumstances are known it would be impossible to produce a meaningful estimate of the effect of taking on these cases on public funds. We could only do this by examining every deferred case that has subsequently been assessed. These would be impossible to identify.
In practice we do not believe the effect on public funds will be very great because a significant number of the deferred cases will be those in which the parent with care had no incentive to pursue their application because the absent parent was on income support.
Deferring the take on of these cases enabled us to concentrate on new cases and those that were more likely to result in a positive outcome for the parent with care and the general taxpayer. We believe that this approach will have been of overall benefit to public funds.

Dr. Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many complaints have been made to the Child Support Agency since its inception; how many complaints have been upheld; in how many cases financial compensation has been paid and on what grounds; and what have been the amounts paid in each case and in total. [7817]

Mr. Mitchell: The administration of the Child Support Agency is a matter for the chief executive, Miss Ann Chant. She will write to the hon. Member.

Letter from Ann Chant to Dr. Tony Wright, dated 16 January 1996:

I am replying to your Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Social Security about complaints made to the Child Support Agency.
Since the inception of the Agency in April 1993 up to the end of November 1995, the Agency has recorded 60,826 complaints. A significant proportion of those complaints concern general child support policy or the legal powers of the Agency. Many of the complaints are from persons who are opposed to the legislation but not actually affected by it. The number of complaints specifically about the Agency's administrative performance is not separately identified, but it is considerably less than the global figure shown above. All complaints on agency administration are investigated although specific information on the number subsequently upheld is not collected.
Only a small proportion of complaints include a query about or request for financial compensation. Under our Departmental scheme a special payment will be considered where a clear unambiguous error by the Agency has resulted in an actual financial loss to the client. The attached table shows the categories under which special payments have been made, the number of payments made and the total cost of those payments.
I hope this is helpful.

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Special payments made (up until 30 November 1995)

	1993-94 April--March		1994-95 April--March		1995-96 April--March
	One-off ex-gratia payments		One-off ex-gratia payments		One-off ex-gratia payments		Continuing ex-gratia payments		Total ex-gratia payments
	Number of payments	Total amount paid £	Number of payments	Total amount paid £	Number of payments	Total amount paid £	Number of payments	Total amount paid £	Total number	Total cost £
Non jurisdiction	--	--	--	--	1	472.80	--	--	1	472.80
Delay in issue of MAF	--	--	1	105.91	1	939.50	--	--	2	1,045.41
Delay in issue of MEF	--	--	1	172.39	26	18,259.99	--	--	27	18,432.38
Delay in calculating MA	--	--	1	36.00	1	408.23	--	--	2	444.23
Delay in issue of DEO	--	--	--	--	1	369.33	--	--	1	369.33
Overpaid child maintenance	--	--	1	1,450.43	22	20,974.67	--	--	23	22,425.10
Restitution	--	--	--	--	1	60.80	--	--	1	60.80
Incorrect MA	--	--	1	269.90	2	592.55	5	348.40	8	1,210.85
Accounting error	--	--	4	920.12	1	258.72	--	--	5	1,178.84
Legal costs	1	100.00	1	1,000.00	3	3,490.81	--	--	5	4,590.81
Bank charges	--	--	17	490.23	5	1,686.91	--	--	22	2,177.14
Travel/post/tel costs	--	--	7	23.12	1	1.69	--	--	8	24.81
Misc expenses (DEO fees)	--	--	1	1.00	2	9.00	--	--	3	10.00
Breach of confidentiality	1	310.00	--	--	2	2,500.00	--	--	3	2,810.00
Worry and distress	--	--	--	--	1	1,500.00	--	--	1	1,500.00
Total	2	410.00	35	4,469.10	70	51,525.00	5	348.40	112	56,752.50

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18 Jan 1996 : Column: 721

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